Caring Circle Limited

Updated 16 November 2022

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 inspection was carried out by one 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. We visited the office on the first day of the inspection, and made phone calls to staff on the second day.

Service and service type

This service 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 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.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from two local authorities and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 9 people and 3 relatives about their experience of the care and support provided. We spoke with the nominated individual who was also the provider. We spoke with and/or received email feedback from 7 staff which included the registered manager, care supervisor and care staff. We received feedback from a professional who was familiar with aspects of the service.

We looked at aspects of care records for 7 people and 3 medication records. We reviewed a range of documentation relating to the management of the service including training records, meeting notes and quality assurance audits.

Updated 16 November 2022

About the service

Hidmat Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people in their own homes. 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. At the time of our inspection there were 39 people who received packages of support which included personal care.

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

Further improvements were needed to ensure effective quality assurance checks of some key areas of the service. The registered manager had good practical oversight of the running of the service and was aware of the improvements needed. During the inspection they introduced new processes and created an action plan to prioritise and track progress.

Since the last inspection improvements have been made to risk assessment and care planning processes. People received safe care which was assessed, monitored and regularly reviewed.

Improvements had been made to recruitment checks undertaken before people commenced work. People received care and support from a consistent staff team as far as possible. Carers normally arrived on time and stayed for the correct length of time.

When people required support to take their medicines, assessments set out people's needs and preferences. Staff followed good infection prevention and control practices and used personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks and gloves.

Accidents and incidents were recorded and followed up appropriately. Lessons were learned and shared when something went wrong or an area for improvement was identified.

Care plans included information about people's support needs and preferences. Staff received an induction and training for their roles.

Where required, people were supported with their eating and drinking needs. The management team worked with health and social care professionals to maintain people's health and welfare.

Staff understood and followed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act and sought consent, offered choice and supported people make decisions about their care.

The registered manager was well thought of and available, confirmed in feedback from people, relatives and staff. People were confident any arising problems or issues would be resolved in a timely manner.

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.

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 13 November 2020) and warning notices were issued to give the provider a short time to make improvements in the areas of people’s safe care and treatment and governance of the service. Since then we undertook a targeted inspection to follow up on those specific issues, but that inspection did not give a rating (published 29 May 2021). There continued to be breaches of regulation in the same areas.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about call times and the length of visits. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

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 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 Hidmat Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.