One Day At A Time Home Care Ltd

Updated 15 February 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 and an Expert 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. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service a short period notice prior to 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 24 January 2022 and ended on 28 January 2022. We visited the location’s office on 24 January 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included previous inspection reports, information received and notifications that had been sent to us and we sought feedback from the Local Authority. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four members of staff including the registered manager, care coordinator, deputy manager and care quality manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care plans and a variety of records in relation to the management of the service including audits, policies and procedures. We reviewed three people’s medicine administration records and reviewed staff training and supervision records.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We reviewed quality assurance records and people’s risk assessments. We received feedback from four other members of staff.

Updated 15 February 2022

About the service

One Day At A Time Home Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 31 people were 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

The service had ensured that medicines were given to people safely. People’s risks assessments were clearly written and easy to follow, meaning that people were less likely to suffer harm.

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.

Staff worked in an open and transparent way to ensure the safety of the people living at the service. The provider was able to demonstrate that quality assurance systems had improved however, further development was still required.

There was a positive culture amongst staff at the service. Staff knew people they supported well and cared about their wellbeing. The provider was able to demonstrate their compliance with legal obligations and any learning from incidents or accidents was undertaken effectively.

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 requires improvement (published 2 April 2020). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 19 February 2020. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for One Day At A Time Home Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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