Gillingham Road

Gillingham Road is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to two people at the time of the inspection. People who used the service were older people.

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

We received positive feedback from people who used the service and relatives. Comments included, “Yes, I feel safe with the staff”, “They do give me choice at all times.” And “They do arrive on time. I do turn up unannounced and I meet them there. They are good.”

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. At the time of the inspection, the care agency was not providing support to anyone with a learning disability or autism.

The service was not able to demonstrate fully how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support

The service (or staff) supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence be independent and they had control over their own lives. However, staff recruitment had not fully promoted safety. Recruitment processes were not always fully carried out in line with legislation.

Staff supported people to take part in activities and pursue their interests in their local area.

Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs.

Right Care

Care plans contained risk assessments which were linked to their support needs. However, some risks were not assessed and there was no information for staff about how to support people to remain safe in such areas.

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care.

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

Right culture

There were no robust audit systems in place to check the quality of the service. We found no audits of the areas of concerns found.

People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity.

Staff were skilled in carrying out their role. The registered manager ensured staff were appropriately trained.

People’s needs were assessed prior to receiving a service including their protected characteristics under the Equalities Act 2010. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 8 May 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

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

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see Well Led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach in relation to 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.