Ascot Care Agency

Updated 25 August 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

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 1 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 28 July 2023 and ended on 4 August 2023. We visited the location’s office on 28 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 7 people who used the service and 7 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with or gathered feedback via email from 7 members of staff including the provider, head of operations, office manager and care staff. We also received feedback from 2 professionals who work with the service.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people’s care records including medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 25 August 2023

About the service

Ascot Care Agency is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own home. At the time of our inspection there were 20 people 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 content and accuracy of care records, risk assessments and medicines records were not always sufficient. We have made recommendations about this. The provider had acted promptly on our feedback and had already started to make positive changes.

Most people told us they felt safe and comfortable when staff were supporting them. Medicines were administered by staff who were trained and had their competencies checked regularly. The provider had effective safeguarding systems in place. Staff received regular safeguarding training and felt confident to report concerns. There were enough staff to care for people safely. People said staff spent the right amount of time with them during visits and no missed calls were reported. The provider completed pre-employment checks on new staff prior to employment and new staff all completed a comprehensive induction. The provider had a robust infection prevention and control system in place and staff had training in this area.

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 delivered care in a person-centred way. People were supported by the same regular team of staff wherever possible. People told us communication with the provider was good, although some people said they would like to receive a rota but did not at present. Staff were happy in their work and understood the importance of their role. The provider sought the opinions of people using the service and staff. People felt confident in the management of the service and staff felt well supported.

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 2 May 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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.

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

Recommendations

We have made recommendations about ensuring audits and quality assurance checks are sufficiently robust to identify shortfalls in records. This includes risk assessments, medicine records and person-centred care plans.

Follow up

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