Pure Care Today Limited

Updated 23 April 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

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. However, at the time of our inspection the registered manager was unavailable. A representative of the provider stood in to assist with gathering information during the inspection.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider’s representative would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 19 October 2021 and ended on 28 October 2021. We visited the office location on 19 October 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it’s registration. We sought feedback from the local authority. The provider did not complete the required Provider Information Return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account in making our judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four members of the care team, a representative of the provider and two relatives. At the time of the inspection there was no nominated individual in post. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We reviewed a range of records, these included two people’s care records and one person’s medication records. We looked at two 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.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the representative of the provider including evidence of staff DBS checks.

Updated 23 April 2022

About the service

Pure Care Today Limited is a domiciliary care service which provides care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting three people.

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

Recruitment practices had not been sufficiently robust to ensure staff were safe and suitable for their roles. Relatives were mainly positive about the staff team, one family told us they felt a carer had lacked the experience and skills to care for their family member properly.

At the time of the inspection the registered manager had not been available for some weeks. Staff told us since this change had occurred there had not been any support to keep up with COVID-19 testing. This meant that staff testing was no longer being completed in line with government guidance. The representative of the provider put an action plan in place to address this.

Staff told us they had felt unsupported in recent months. Management oversight of the service had been lacking since the registered manager had not been available, this had meant that staff had not received the ongoing support and training they needed. There was also a lack of monitoring of staff testing for COVID-19.

Relatives told us that most staff followed good infection prevention control practices. One relative told us; “[The staff] are very good with the cleaning.”

People’s care plans and risk assessments were personalised, detailed and included information about their preferences and what they could do for themselves. Staff were able to describe people’s care needs well.

People were supported to be as independent as they could and were treated with dignity and respect.

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.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 11/04/2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was the first inspection of the service since it’s registration.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to lack of oversight of staff recruitment and staff testing for COVID-19 at this inspection.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.