Basingstoke Centre

Basingstoke Centre is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people who live in their own home. At the time of inspection, they were providing care to 19 people, which included older people, people living with dementia and people with medical conditions affecting their mobility.

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

Although the provider was carrying out identity and disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks, they were not meeting the requirements for safe recruitment. Staff files did not have complete work history and the provider was unable to show us any evidence of conduct in previous employment in health and social care settings.

Staff had not completed required training. There was not a robust effective system in place to ensure that the provider employed people who were suitably qualified, competent and experienced. This placed people at risk of receiving inappropriate or unsafe care.

We found no evidence that people had been harmed, however, there were failures to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service, as well as failure to maintain accurate records.

The registered manager was not carrying out audits of the service and there was no process for learning from accidents/incidents, safeguarding and complaints.

We have made a recommendation about care plans as they were not complete and did not contain the risk assessments staff needed to keep people safe.

People told us they felt they received a good service and that staff gave them respect, privacy and dignity during the care provided.

People and relatives told us that the provider was responsive when they required changes to their care.

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 24 June 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This was a planned inspection based on the service being newly registered.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from 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 continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.