Abuv & Beyond

Abuv and Beyond is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with '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 the inspection the service was supporting 42 people with personal care.

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

There were enough staff to meet the demands of the service, although recruitment practices were not sufficiently robust. There had been some shifts covered by the management team when staffing levels had been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. People felt safely supported and well cared for, and said there were consistent staff to meet their needs.

Infection prevention and control measures, such as consistent use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were in place. Staff engaged in regular COVID-19 testing, but recording of this was not robustly completed.

We found gaps in recording of medicines, although people told us they had the right support for their medicines.

Staff training had been completed online, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic there had been no face to face training in practical tasks. The provider had begun to source practical based training for all staff.

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.

Staff had a caring approach. They knew the people they supported and there was clear information about how to meet their care needs at each visit. Care records lacked specific information to guide staff to support people where they had specific health needs and the risks that may be associated, or signs of concern.

Quality checks were carried out, although some systems and processes were not sufficiently robust and there were gaps in recording. The provider told us this was in part due to the hands-on care roles which needed to be undertaken by the management team during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have made a recommendation for the provider to consider ways to monitor the visits to people, to ensure they take place as planned and for the agreed duration.

The service was family run and the registered manager was clear about the need to separate professional and family roles in order to have an objective approach. Positive feedback overall was given about the management team and care staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, staff and the management team worked together to ensure visits to people were not missed.

The service was registered with is on 17/12/2019 and this is the first inspection.

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

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

The provider has given us some assurances that the issues identified though the inspection process were already under discussion and plans being considered for improvement.

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