Com Safer Care Ltd

Updated 15 March 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Com Safer Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service that provides care and support to people living in a supported living setting, so that they can live as independently as possible.

People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. We were informed by the deputy manager, that they were recruiting for a manager and will ensure they register with the CQC once recruited.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 72 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 20 February 2023 and ended on 1 March 2023. We visited the location’s office on 20 February 2023 and the supported living site on 24 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We also reviewed the information we already held about the service. This included their registration report and notifications. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection, we visited the providers head office and also the supported living site. We spoke with the deputy manager. We reviewed documents and records related to people’s care and the management of the service, which included people’s care plans and medicine records.

We reviewed staff files, which included pre-employment checks. We looked at other documents such as quality assurance and training records.

We spoke to a relative of a person who used the service to receive their feedback about the service. We also spoke to 2 staff members to check if they knew about the people they supported.

Updated 15 March 2023

About the service

Com Safer Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service that provides care and support to people living in a supported living setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

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 expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

Care plans did not include people’s preferences with personal care to ensure they received person centred care. We made a recommendation in this area.

Staff had completed essential training to perform their roles effectively. Staff were supported through regular supervision. People were able to choose where they lived. The supported living site was an ordinary house close to other residential and commercial properties, at the heart of the local community. People were supported to eat a balanced diet and were able to choose what they ate. People had access to health care professionals. Information was provided to people in a way that was accessible to them. Systems were in place for dealing with complaints. People were supported to maintain relationships with family and friends, and to engage in meaningful activities.

Right Care

Robust risk assessments were not in place to ensure people received safe care at all times. Medicines were being managed safely. People were protected from the risk of abuse. Steps had been taken to help ensure the physical environment was safe. There were enough staff working at the service. The provider had staff recruitment practices in place. Infection control and prevention systems were in place. Accidents and incidents were reviewed to see if any lessons could be learnt from them. Staff were caring and that they treated people with respect. Staff understood how to support people in a way that promoted their privacy, independence and dignity. The service sought to meet people's needs in relation to equality and diversity.

Right culture

Robust quality assurance systems were not in place to ensure shortfalls could be identified and action taken to ensure people were safe at all times. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff told us there was an open and positive culture at the service. People were supported to express their views.

Systems were in place to ensure feedback was received from people on their care.

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

Rating at last inspection

This was the first inspection of the service since it registered with CQC on 2 September 2021.

Why we inspected

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

The overall rating for the service is Requires Improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Com Safer Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach on good governance 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 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.