Archived: Unique Care UK

Updated 9 March 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has experience of or experience of caring for someone who has used this type of service. Their involvement in this inspection was making calls to people using the service and their relatives.

We spoke with a director of the company, the registered manager and the care coordinator during the inspection. After the inspection we spoke with three care workers by telephone. We spoke with two people using the service and to relatives of three other people to find out their views on the service.

We carried out pathway tracking where we checked all the records relating to four people using the service to see if the service had assessed their needs, developed a care plan and risk assessment and kept records of care provided. We looked at the recruitment records for five care workers. We checked all staff training and supervision records and records relating to the management the service. This included audits, satisfaction monitoring records, complaints and policies.

Updated 9 March 2019

This inspection took place on 22 January 2019 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours' notice that we would be visiting their office so that someone would be available to support us with the inspection process. This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered with CQC in April 2018. The service had been operational for three months at the time of this inspection.

Unique Care UK is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to adults of any age who need care due to physical disabilities, illness or those living with dementia. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of this inspection the service was providing personal care services to twelve people. A live – in care service was provided to one person. Most people used the service for between one and three calls a day for support with personal care and meal preparation.

There was a registered manager in post who was also a director of the company. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The service had risk assessments in place which covered specific areas of risk for each person, such as falls, environmental and health risks. The service had processes in place to ensure the safe administration of medicines.

The provider had not consistently followed safe recruitment processes. Some staff did not have references from previous employers in health and social care as evidence of satisfactory conduct in their previous jobs, and one person did not have a suitable up to date criminal records check.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The service's policies supported this. Care workers always asked people’s consent before providing any care.

Care plans were not sufficiently detailed to ensure person centred care would be provided though staff had a good understanding of what care they were to provide and feedback from people using the service was overall positive.

Staff supported people to ensure they ate and drank well. People were generally happy with the care staff that supported them and thought care workers were caring.

Care workers had appropriate training and support to enable them to deliver their roles effectively. They told us they were happy working for this service and felt well supported by the registered manager.

The service had processes in place which dealt with complaints and concerns.

The management team were continually improving the service and learning from experience. The service had been operating a short time so were monitoring their calls by phone and spot checks but they were planning to implement an electronic call monitoring system shortly after the inspection.

We found two breaches of legal requirements at this inspection which related to staff recruitment and quality of care plans. You can see what action we asked the provider to take at the end of the full version of this report.