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.