Casa Care Ltd

Updated 6 April 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 completed by 2 inspectors and an Expert by Experience. One inspector visited the provider’s office. The second inspector and Expert by Experience spoke with people, relatives and staff to gain feedback about the service. 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 homes.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. This person was also the registered provider.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced.

We gave short notice of our inspection on 13 January 2023 to the registered provider. This was to ensure they would be available to support the inspection process. Inspection activity started on 13 January 2023 and ended on 27 January 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we had received about the service since registration. We contacted the Local Authority and asked for feedback from them. 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

During our visit to the provider’s office we spoke with 1 field supervisor, 2 human resource and recruitment staff, the operations manager, the registered manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We used technology including telephone calls to enable us to engage with people, their relatives and staff. We spoke with 18 people and their relatives and 5 care staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people’s care plans and medication administering records, risk and health management records and daily notes. We reviewed further risk management plans related to specific identified risks. We reviewed 3 staff’s employment records and staff training and competency assessments. We reviewed policies and procedures and quality monitoring records the registered manager used to assure themselves people received a safe service.

Updated 6 April 2023

About the service

Casa Care Limited, Leamington Spa, is a domiciliary care agency which is registered to provide personal care and support to people in their own homes. The service offers daytime and night-time care and support. The service is registered to provide support to older and younger people, people living with dementia, people with mental health support needs, people with a learning disability, a physical disability, and people with a sensory impairment.

At the time of our inspection, the service was supporting 53 people. 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 provider had quality check systems in place to monitor the services provided. However, these had not always been effective.

An IT issue during August 2022 had presented some challenges to the provider and had led to a lack of timeliness with care calls. Prior to our inspection we had received concerns about a missed care call and the timeliness of care calls. At this inspection, lateness of care calls continued to be an area in need of improvement. The provider had, during December 2022, implemented a new care call monitoring system.

The provider’s systems and processes had not identified potential risks to people. Staff were unable to refer to detailed person specific risk management plans. Whilst staff had been trained in generic risk management, they did not have written guidance to refer to about people’s individual or specific health condition and how risks related to those should be managed.

People felt safe with staff. Staff were recruited in a safe way and received an induction and training. However, spot checks that took place to ensure staff had the skills they needed were not consistently effective in relation to new staff.

Some improvement was needed in communication from office staff and managers to people, relatives and care staff. Whilst the provider had a complaints policy and written complaints had been investigated and addressed, where informal issues had been raised not everyone felt these had been fully resolved.

People had plans of care which contained instructions to staff about the tasks they needed to complete. People described care staff as kind and caring toward them. People received their medicines as prescribed and support with meal preparation when this was a part of their agreed care.

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.

Right Support: Model of Care and setting that maximises people’s choice, control and independence

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

Right Care: Care was person-centred and did promote people’s dignity, privacy and human rights

Right Culture: The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff did ensure people using services led confident, inclusive and empowered lives.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published July 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This included some concerns shared with us about people not receiving care at the required time or for right duration of time. We decided to inspect and examine those risks.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection. We found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report.

You can read the report from our last inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for the Casa Care 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.