Churchill Health Care (Luton)

Churchill Healthcare (Luton) is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to older and younger adults who may be living with dementia, a physical disability or a learning disability living in their own houses or flats. The service was supporting 213 people at the time of this inspection.

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

Risks to people were assessed according to their support needs, however some risk assessments needed to be more detailed. When incidents and accidents happened, there were sometimes missed opportunities to learn lessons and put improvements in place. Staff knowledge around safeguarding and reporting concerns to external authorities needed improving. Audits were not always effective at identifying where improvements could be made. It was not clear when care plans were reviewed and how people and their relatives were involved in these.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice. Staff training and knowledge around the MCA needed improving and there were also some improvements that could be made regarding the recording of consent in people’s care plans. We have made a recommendation about the service updating its practice around the MCA in line with best practice.

People were happy with the care and support they received at the service. One person told us, ‘‘[Staff] look after me well. They are all very nice kind and caring.’’

There were enough staff to keep people safe and ensure that people received the support they needed. Staff received training, supervision and observation to ensure that they were performing their job roles well. People were supported safely with their medicines and with regards to infection control. People received support with nutrition and hydration according to their needs and were supported to see health professionals if this was needed.

People received kind and compassionate care from a staff team who knew them well. Staff promoted people’s privacy, dignity and independence and gave people everyday choices about their support. People received personalised care based on their preferences, likes and dislikes and where end of life care was required this was provided with dignity and respect.

The provider and manager were committed to improving the quality of the service and were acting in areas where improvements were needed. There was a positive culture at the service and people, relatives and the staff team praised the support that they received from the manager and the provider. Complaints were recorded and responded to promptly. There were good working relationships with external professionals and authorities.

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 20/06/2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.