First Point 24

About the service

First Point 24 is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living 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. At the time of our inspection there were 68 people receiving personal care support.

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

Right Support

The provider had not always ensured people were supported to make decisions about the timing of their care visits. People’s preferences for their support were not always recorded.

People were supported to take their medicines by trained staff; however, staff did not always have clear guidance about what support people required or any risks associated with their medicines.

Right Care

The provider had not always completed recruitment checks robustly to ensure staff were safely employed. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. However, the provider not always submitted safeguarding notifications in a timely manner.

Risks to people’s health and safety were not always appropriately documented to ensure staff knew how to support them safely.

People spoke positively about their care and told us their care visits were not rushed.

Right Culture

The provider did not have effective systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. It was not always clear how people, and those important to them, were actively involved in reviewing their care and giving feedback on the service.

The provider worked in partnership with other health and social care professionals to meet people’s needs. People, and those important to them, told us the management team were approachable and responsive.

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 17 October 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management of safeguarding concerns at the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

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 good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for First Point 24 on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to the provider’s governance and recruitment processes at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report. We have made a recommendation about the provider's systems for managing safeguarding concerns.

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.

People’s experience of using this service: Relatives told us they were very happy with the service being provided.

Care and treatment was planned and delivered in a way that was intended to ensure people's safety and welfare. People were cared for and supported by staff who had received the appropriate training.

Staff were employed following the appropriate recruitment checks.

There were systems in place to minimise the risk of infection and to learn lessons from accidents and incidents. There were safe medication procedures for staff to follow.

Staff had a good understanding of people’s preferences of care, staff promoted people’s independence. Care plans were reviewed on a regular basis.

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

People were supported to eat and drink enough to ensure they maintained a balanced diet and referrals to other health professionals were made when required.

People and their relatives were involved in the planning and review of their care. People were supported to follow their interests and participate in social activities. The registered manager had policies in place to respond to complaints. Support could be provided to people at the end of their life.

The provider had systems in place to monitor and provide good care and these were reviewed on a regular basis.

This service was registered with us on 30/07/2018 and this is the first inspection.

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