Compassion Home Care Limited

Updated 9 February 2024

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors over 2 days. 2 Experts by Experience also supported this inspection. 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

Compassion Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency, it provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection as we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. This inspection site visit took place on 14 September 2023 and 22 September 2023 and was announced.

What we did before the inspection

We checked the information we had about the service including notifications they had sent us. A notification is information about incidents or events that providers are required to inform us about. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. The provider completed a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 15 people and 6 relatives to seek their views about the service. We spoke with 17 members of care staff, including 2 team leaders, the director and the registered manager. We reviewed records, including the care records of 10 people using the service and recruitment files and training records of 5 staff members. We also looked at records related to the management of the service such as quality audits, accident and incident, and policies and procedures.

Updated 9 February 2024

About the service: Compassion Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes, At the time of the inspection there were 42 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

We found that the provider failed to carry out comprehensive pre-assessments before people joined the service. Appropriate risk assessments were either not in place or not adequate. Risk management plans were not always in place to manage these risks, which included falls, mobility, mobility equipment, multiple sclerosis, dementia, epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, and skin integrity. Medicines were not always safely managed.

There was a system in place to log and investigate accidents and incidents, however, these were not analysed and learning from this was not disseminated to staff.

People’s independence was not always promoted, and people’s privacy and dignity was not always respected. Staff did not receive training in areas such as epilepsy and catheter bag care. People’s communication needs were not always clearly documented.

Staff did not have a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Staff were not supported with regular 1:1 supervision meetings and staff meetings. Complaints were not always managed effectively.

Governance systems were not always effective at identifying and reducing risks to people's safety.

People or their relatives told us that they were involved in planning their care, although this was not always documented. People told us that they felt safe. People were protected from the risk of infection. Appropriate recruitment checks were carried out before staff joined the service. The service worked in partnership with key organisations and health and social care professionals when required.

Rating:

The last rating for this service was Good (published 17 November 2017). The service has deteriorated to inadequate.

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement and Recommendations:

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing, person-centred care, dignity, MCA and good governance at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report. 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

The overall rating for this service is 'Inadequate' and the service is therefore in 'special measures'. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider's registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it, and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.