Redspot Care Limited

Updated 27 May 2023

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 2 inspectors and 2 experts by experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. As a domiciliary care agency, it provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

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 unannounced.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who worked with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 10 people and 9 family members about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 11 members of staff including 6 care staff, a field supervisor, a complaints and feedback officer, an on-boarding administrator, and the registered manager. We also spoke with the nominated individual following our site visit. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 11 people’s care and or medicine administration records. We looked at 7 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff management. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 27 May 2023

About the service

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Redspot Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people in their own homes. 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. They were providing personal care to 196 people at the time of the inspection.

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

Right Support

Call planning and monitoring at the service was poor. People and relatives confirmed what our analysis found; lateness and missed calls were problematic. We raised a safeguarding alert with a local authority due to concerns shared by a relative with regards to missed calls. Following our feedback to the provider, they took steps to rectify this.

People’s needs were assessed so the service was able to understand and meet those needs. Staff worked with health and social care professionals to provide people with effective care. People were supported to eat and drink where required.

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. People’s consent was sought when care was provided, and they were given appropriate choices by staff.

Right Care

The service lacked adequate systems to ensure people received good care regularly. People had mixed views on how the service engaged with them.

People and relatives told us they were treated well by staff. People’s equality and diversity characteristics were respected as was their privacy and dignity.

There were systems in place to safeguard people from abuse. Recruitment practices were robust. Staff were employed with people’s safety in mind. Infection prevention and control measures were followed by staff.

People’s communication needs and preferences were recorded in care plans. People and relatives were able to complain, and the service responded to complaints appropriately. The service worked with people who were at the end of their lives.

Right Culture

It wasn’t always clear if lessons were learned when things went wrong. We found the provider did not always follow their policy when incidents and accidents occurred. Risks to people were assessed, we found care plans and risk assessments were not always reviewed in a timely fashion.

Staff received training to support them in their roles, though we were told a training matrix used by the service had not been updated recently. People and relatives were not always able to express their views about the care provided; we found evidence indicating care plan and risk assessments reviews were not completed as regularly as they should have been.

Staff were supported through 1 to 1 meetings with management and received inductions when they started working for the provider.

The registered manager and staff were clear about their roles and the provider understood and fulfilled their regulatory requirements. The service worked in partnership with other agencies to support people with their needs.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 29 October 2020). At our last inspection we recommended that the provider follow guidance about sending CQC notifications. At this inspection we found the provider had made improvements in this regard.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to staffing and good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.