Standard Care Limited

Updated 23 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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Standard Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

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 provider one day’s notice because we needed to ensure they would be available to assist us with the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 7 December 2022 and ended on 6 February 2023. We requested a range of documents that were sent to us by the provider between 7 December and 6 February 2023. We visited the office location 7 December 2022 to see the registered manager and to review further records related to the service. We made calls to people, their relatives and care staff between 7 December 2022 and 13 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a 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 reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included any significant incidents that occurred at the service.

We reviewed information from the local authority commissioning team and also reviewed the previous inspection report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records related to nine people’s care and support. This included people’s care plans, risk assessments, medicines records and 7 staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included safeguarding incidents, quality assurance records, minutes of staff meetings and a range of policies and procedures.

We spoke with 8 staff members. This included the registered manager, two senior members of staff and 5 care workers. We contacted 26 people and managed to speak to with 6 people and 2 relatives.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found after the inspection. We looked at further quality assurance records and correspondence with a range of professionals related to people’s care.

We provided formal feedback to the registered manager via email on 12 December 2022.

Updated 23 March 2023

About the service

Standard Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The service provides personal care to older people, some of whom have dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 75 people using the service.

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 their relatives gave good feedback about the support they received from care staff who helped to keep them safe.

Risks to people’s care were not always appropriately managed. The provider was in the process of updating people’s care records. Where people’s records had been updated, we found risk assessments had identified risks and included clear risk management guidelines to assist staff. Where care records had not been updated, we found risk assessments were lacking in clear instructions for staff on how to manage identified risks.

People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. The provider had systems in place to manage allegations of abuse. Care staff had received training in how to identify and manage concerns relating to abuse and they demonstrated a good understanding of their responsibilities.

People’s care was monitored to ensure it was delivered on time and there were no missed care calls. The provider used an electronic system to monitor care calls, which was constantly reviewed. Where concerns were identified, these were followed up immediately.

Staff felt supported working for the provider and enjoyed working at the service. They confirmed they had received an appropriate induction, training and ongoing support.

The provider had effective monitoring and auditing systems in place to identify issues with the quality of the service. The provider had identified concerns relating to their risk assessments and were in the process of updating these.

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

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 14 May 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation at this inspection. The provider completed an action plan following this inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. We re-inspected the service on 1 October 2020 and found improvements had been made, but we were unable to change the rating.

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement and recommendations

We have found a breach in relation to risk management. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of the full version 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.