Advantage Health & Social Care

Updated 26 May 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced.

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 23 March 2022 and ended on 07 April 2022. We visited the location’s office on 24 March 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we held about the service and the provider, such as notifications. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us. We sought feedback from the local authority. We also requested feedback from Healthwatch to obtain their views of the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service, about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager. We spoke by telephone with one person and with relatives of two people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with seven members of staff

We reviewed a range of records. These included three people’s care records. We looked at five staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records in relation to the management of the service were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at recruitment records, training data, rotas, policies and procedures and quality assurance records.

Updated 26 May 2022

About the service

Advantage Health and Social Care is a domiciliary care agency. People are supported in their own homes so that they can live as independently as possible. The domiciliary care agency is registered to provide a service to younger adults, older people and people living with physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Improvements were required to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed. There was a lack of direction for staff administering people’s medicines. We found examples where body maps for recording the application of topical creams, were in place but these were not always completed by staff. Protocols for administering medicines as and when required (PRN) were not always in place to guide staff on administering PRN medicines. This meant there was a risk staff may not be administering the PRN medicines in a consistent way. We have made a recommendation to the provider around the management and administration of medicines.

Recruitment of staff was carried out safely. However, we could not be assured of this on the day of the inspection. The registered manager could not locate all checks for staff. For example, references and DBS checks. We were sent this information the following day.

Governance systems required further improvement. The registered manager acknowledged they required more time to do administration tasks rather than undertaking care duties. They were addressing this by trying to recruit more staff.

People received personalised care from a small, consistent staff team who knew them well and were responsive to their individual needs. Staff had a good understanding of the support people needed and provided this with compassion and care, whilst respecting their privacy and dignity.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The registered manager involved people and their relatives with managing people’s care and support needs. Relatives and people felt listened to and received the care and support that met their individual needs and preferences.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we inspected

This service was registered with us on 16 October 2017 and this is the first inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.