Mcare24 Limited

Updated 23 March 2024

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

The service was inspected by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and specialist housing. This service provides care and support to people living in 3 ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

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

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 4 January 2024 and ended on 23 January 2024. We visited the location’s office on 4 January 2024.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service. 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 members of staff including the registered manager [who is also the provider], a nurse and 3 care staff. We spoke with 1 service user, 1 relative and 2 healthcare professionals. We also received feedback from a local commissioner. We looked at the care plans and medication records of 2 people, policies, and procedures and 2 staff files.

Updated 23 March 2024

MCare24 Limited is a domiciliary care and supported living service, providing the regulated activity of personal care. The service provides support to people living with dementia, people with a learning disability, autistic people, older people, people with a physical disability and people with mental health needs. At the time of our inspection there were 3 people using the service who were in receipt of personal care in supported living settings.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support:

People told us they felt safe when supported by care staff and were happy with and complimentary about their care. Staff were aware of the risks to people, but care records were not up to date and did not always reflect people’s current needs. People were supported by safely recruited staff who knew them well.

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.

Right Care:

People were supported by staff who were aware of their responsibilities to protect them from harm. However, there had been a number of incidents where the provider had failed to recognise people were at potential risk of harm. The provider worked alongside other agencies in order to support people to meet their health care needs. People were supported by a consistent group of staff who knew them well.

Right Culture: We found some areas of the service that required improvement that the provider’s own systems and processes had not identified. These were in relation to ensuring information held in people’s care records was up to date and correctly risk assessed. People told us they had no issues getting hold of management and relatives were kept informed of events that affected their loved ones.

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 good (published 4 December 2017).

Why we inspected

We inspected this service due to the length of time since the previous inspection. This inspection was also prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We completed a focussed inspection of the key questions safe, effective and well led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the rating awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for MCare 24 Limited on our website www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to good governance.

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 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.