11 September 2019
During a routine inspection
EcoClean is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to 32 people at the time of the inspection. Of these, 20 received regulated activity.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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
Although we found there had been improvements in the service, shortfalls remained in the governance of the service. Quality assurance checks had not been effective enough to identify and address concerns, to drive all the necessary improvements forward in a timely way.
Risks to people were assessed but actions for staff to take were unclear and risk assessments were not always in place.
The provider did not conduct mental capacity assessments or best interests decisions for people who may lack the capacity to make decisions about their care and support. Therefore, people were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.
Care plans we saw contained good person centred detail about their routines, preferences and how staff were to support them. However, records did not always contain consistent information.
People received their medicines as prescribed, and staff had sufficient training and support to meet peoples needs. There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s needs.
Care plans took into account people’s diverse characteristics and backgrounds. Staff promoted people’s dignity and independence.
There was a complaints policy in place and complaints were managed in line with the service's policies and procedures.
We made a recommendation with regards to risk assessment.
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 September 2018) and there were three breaches of the regulations identified. 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 that although some improvements had been made and was no longer in breach of some regulations, the provider was still in breach of regulation 17 and a new breach of regulation was identified (regulation 11).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.