Mark Time Care Limited

Mark Time Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes within and around Nottingham. It provides a service to older and younger adults living with a range of health conditions and needs, to live independently in the community. Not everyone using Mark Time Care Limited receives regulated activity; 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 take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, 19 people were receiving personal care as part of their care package.

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

Overall people told us they were happy with the care they received. In the main, people received care from regular staff who they had developed a positive relationship with.

Guidance for staff about how to meet people’s care needs and known risks, were inconsistent in the level of detail provided. Not all risks had been sufficiently assessed and planned for.

Where people required support with their prescribed medicines, staff were not following national best practice guidance. Improvements were required in the transcribing of medicines to ensure mistakes were not made.

We have made a recommendation about reviewing current medicine management best practice guidance.

Staff had received an induction and shadowed experienced staff. Staff had received training, but some training gaps were identified. Staff felt well supported by the registered manager, but opportunities for staff to discuss their work, training and development needs was informal.

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 ensured people’s hydration and nutritional needs were met and they liaised with external health care professionals, to support people with their health conditions. People were protected from the risk of cross contamination because staff followed infection control prevention and control practice.

Staffing levels were sufficient to meet people’s care needs and checks were completed on staff’s suitability to work with people. Staff had received safeguarding training and people knew how to raise any concerns or complaints. Where incidents had occurred, these were recorded, reviewed and monitored. Action was taken to reduce further risks.

Staff were kind, caring and compassionate and understood people’s needs. Staff encouraged people’s independence and upheld their rights. People were involved in discussions and decisions about their care, but this needed to be formalised.

End of life care was not being provided at the time of the inspection, but people’s wishes to some aspects of their end of life had been discussed with them.

Systems used to monitor the quality and safety of the service had recently been improved upon. This included oversight of people’s care package to ensure staff had completed visits in accordance to their assessed needs. People received opportunities to share their experience of the service they received.

The registered manager was found to be caring, responsive and showed a determination and commitment to drive forward improvements. Where shortfalls in standards were identified during this inspection, they took immediate action to make improvements.

The registered manager understood their registration regulatory responsibilities.

Rating at last inspection

This was the first time the location had been inspected therefore there was no previous rating. This service was registered with us on 3 October 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the registration date.

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.