Archived: Ignite Health and Home Care Service - Northampton

Ignite Health and Homecare Services Ltd is a domiciliary home care service providing personal care to 31 younger and older people in their own houses or flats at the time of the inspection.

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

Risks were not consistently assessed and mitigated and care plans did not always reflect people’s current need. People did not always feel involved in the care planning process which meant care was not always person centred.

The registered manager had not consistently maintained oversight of the safety and quality of the service and did not have a regular presence in the service. Auditing and monitoring of delegated tasks required improvement.

Medicines were not consistently safe and well managed, staff did not have all the information needed to support safe administration in line with national guidance. Medicine audits had not identified issues found during inspection.

There was not consistently enough staff to meet people’s needs. This meant staff were frequently late and call durations were shorter than agreed. The lack of recruitment and contingency plans meant we were not reassured that staffing numbers would be sufficient if there were high numbers of staff sickness or adverse weather affecting travel. We have recommended that the provider and registered manager look at how they will manage staff sustainability going forward.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not consistently support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies in the service did support this practice but the policies and systems had not been implemented at the time of the inspection. We have recommended that this is reviewed to ensure mental capacity assessments are completed where required, legal authority of decision making on a person’s behalf is evidenced and staff understanding is supported in this area.

People told us they felt safe with staff, some people reported staff were rushed and not as gentle as others but still kind and caring.

Staff were recruited safely and completed an induction and mandatory training. Training for people’s more complex needs such as pressure area care and catheter care was not always completed for staff working in these areas. Some staff required a refresh of their training in line with the providers policy.

People’s religious and cultural needs were considered and planned into care. Staff had access to the providers equality and diversity policy and staff were trained in supporting people with protected characteristics such as dementia and learning disability.

Staff had access to and were using personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent the spread of infection.

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 20/03/2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staff time keeping and attendance and the safe management of medicines. As a result, we undertook a comprehensive inspection as this service had not yet been inspected and rated.

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

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 the safety and management of the service at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and 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.