Honeydew Healthcare Ltd

Honeydew Healthcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. They provide this either in the form of regular visits to people or live in staff. People had a range of needs and some were more complex. 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

People and those important to them had mixed feedback about how well supported they were by staff. Some felt that they had very supportive, kind and caring staff led by a strong registered manager. However, others with more complex needs were less positive about their experiences.

Shortfalls were found with medicine administration and management including the lack of guidance for ‘as required’ medicine. Improvements were required to risk assessments to ensure consistent care in line with current best practice. Learning was starting to happen from things that went wrong, and systems were being developed.

Staff had a range of training and there was a drive to promote continual professional development. However, staff lacked skills to support people with more complex needs. This was reflected in gaps in training which could potentially lead to poor and unsafe practices by staff. Care plans often lacked the details and guidance for staff leading to a potential risk of inconsistent care and support being delivered.

People were supported to have choice and control of their lives. However, records did not always demonstrate how people were supported in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice.

The registered manager had a clear vision for the service and wanted to ensure people received the best care possible. However, systems to monitor the support being delivered not consistent and improvements were made during the inspection. This placed people at risk of harm and poor care.

End of life care plans had not been considered for every person receiving care at the service. Although, when people had expressed a wish not to talk about this it had been respected.

Following the inspection, the provider updated us on improvements that had already been made since the inspection.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

This service was registered with us on 23 December 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received following the outcome of a safeguarding investigation by the local authority safeguarding team. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective, responsive 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.

Enforcement and Recommendations

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 monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, recruitment and governance of the service at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

We have also made a recommendation around decision making for people lacking capacity.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect..