Carers 4 U Ltd

Updated 27 August 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by an inspector and an Expert 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.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 June 2021 and ended on 22 July 2021. We visited the office location on 5 July 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people using the service and three relatives by telephone to seek their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including, the registered manager, nominated individual, a senior supervisor and three care workers. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included seven people's care, risk management and medicines records. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures, safeguarding, staff rota, accident and incident, quality checks and minutes of staff meetings.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 27 August 2021

About the service

Carers 4 U Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care, support and live in care services to adults and older people living within their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 33 people using the service.

Not everyone using the service may receive the regulated activity; personal care. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Records were not always updated after care and support reviews. Where things went wrong lessons were not always learnt promptly from complaints to prevent repeat occurrences. People, their relatives and staff views were gathered, and the results were analysed but there were no action plans in place to help drive improvements.

People and their relatives said they felt safe using the service. Staff understood the need to protect people in their care from the risk of abuse and knew how to raise any concerns of abuse. Risks to people's health and safety had been identified and assessed. People's medicines were managed safely, and people were protected from the risk of infections and diseases. Staff were effectively deployed to ensure people’s needs were met. The service followed appropriate pre-employment checks before staff started working with the service. Accidents and incidents were recorded and reported.

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.

Before people began using the service their needs were assessed to ensure they could be met. People were supported to maintain good health; eat healthily and access healthcare services when required. People knew how to make a complaint if they were unhappy about the service. Care and support was planned and delivered to meet individual needs and people’s communication needs were assessed and met.

The manager understood their responsibility for meeting regulatory requirements. Feedback from staff about the culture and the way the service was managed was positive. The service worked in partnership with key organisations to deliver an effective service.

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 requires improvement (published 3 October 2019). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance. At this inspection we found improvements had been made, however, this was not enough, and the provider is still rated requires improvement under the well-led key question.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating. We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 26 July 2019, where breaches of legal requirements were found. We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective, Responsive and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Carers 4 U Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.