London Care (Basildon)

Updated 25 May 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

This inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and 2 Experts by Experience. 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

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

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 a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 April 2023 and ended on 25 April 2023. We visited the location’s office on 17 April 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 members of staff, these were the head of quality and governance, the regional manager, and the registered manager. We spoke with 17 people using the service and 12 family members. We looked at staff records in relation to recruitment, training and supervision and a variety of records relating to the management of the service.

Following the inspection to the domiciliary care office, we continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. We spoke with a further 8 members of staff either by telephone or email correspondence.

Updated 25 May 2023

About the service

London Care is a domiciliary care agency providing the regulated activity of personal care to people who live in their own houses and flats. At the time of our inspection there were 96 people using the service.

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

There were systems in place to monitor, maintain and improve the quality of the service. People and relative’s spoke positively about the leadership of the service. However, whilst staff spoke about their passion and commitment for the work they do, the majority of staff told us they felt unsupported, communication was poor and any issues or concerns they raised either with the office staff or management team were either not responded to or not followed up.

Staff felt confident their training provided them with the knowledge they needed to support people safely. People told us they received safe care from staff who knew them. There was a safeguarding policy in place and the registered manager, and staff knew how to identify and report concerns. The service had enough staff to meet the needs of people using the service. Staff had been safely recruited and pre-employment checks carried out.

Staff had received training in medicine administration. People told us they received their medicines on time. Staff told us they had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and there were effective infection control measures in place. People confirmed appropriate PPE was worn by staff when being provided with care and support.

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 and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 4 January 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about people’s care and treatment and poor conduct of managers and office staff. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service remains good based on the findings of this inspection.

Follow up

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