22 November 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Options Health Care Services is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to older people in their own home. At the time of our inspection there were 6 people using the service.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal care. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.
Options Health Care Services changed its registered office address on 09 January 2022. It was previously registered at Unit 14A Meadway Court, Rutherford Close Stevenage SG1 2EF. The address changed to 241 Kings Court, London Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2NG. The provider had not notified us of this, despite prompting at our DMA on 29 September 2022. It was only changed as a result of this inspection.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Risks relating to people’s care and support were not always assessed and care records lacked key information about how to manage those risks. We have made a recommendation about documenting people’s known health needs.
Staff were not always deployed to meet people's needs in a timely manner and at the time agreed.
Staff were clear on what actions they needed to take in relation to infection prevention and control (IPC), including the wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and regular hand washing. However, we were told that staff did not always wear masks which people preferred.
Quality assurance systems in place were not being fully effective and did not highlight the concerns we found during this inspection, or made improvements following previous recommendations. Notifications of significant events were made to CQC as required.
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.
People told us they felt safe with the care provided. People received their medicines as the prescriber intended.
People were positive about the care they received and the management of the service.
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 26 July 2019) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found some improvements had been made but the provider remained in breach of one regulation.
This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This indicated concerns in relation to staffing, risk management, consent and overall management of the service.
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 has remained requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Options Health Care Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We have identified a breach in relation to good governance at this inspection.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end 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 follow up in a couple of months and request evidence of actions taken. 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.