Lionheart Domiciliary Care Services Limited - Deptford

Updated 28 June 2022

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.

Service and service type

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

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48hrs notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Inspection activity started with a visit to the office on 26 April 2022. We made another visit to the office on 28 April 2022 and made calls to people receiving care on 13 May 2022. During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, the operations manager and two care coordinators. We reviewed the care plans and risk assessments of five people and we looked at the recruitment records of five members of staff. We also analysed the electronic call monitoring (ECM) data for eight people receiving care.

We made calls to six people receiving care and seven family members to get their feedback about the service. We received feedback from two local authority professionals who worked with the service to plan and deliver care and support. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We got feedback from nine care workers about their role.

Updated 28 June 2022

About the service

Lionheart Domiciliary Care Services Limited - Deptford is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. In this service, the Care Quality Commission can only inspect the service received by people who get support with personal care. This includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where people receive such support, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were 36 people receiving personal care support.

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

People and their relatives were positive about the care they received. We received comments such as, “They do anything the clients want. I think they have gone that extra mile for us, that makes me feel happy” and “I would recommend them, they are punctual and they make sure I have a cup of coffee.”

Despite this positive feedback we identified issues with the quality and safety of the service. People’s medicines were not always administered safely and in line with best practice. The provider did not follow safe recruitment procedures.

There were quality assurance systems and processes in place, however, they had not identified the issues we found. Staff were positive about the support they received to fulfil their role. The provider sought regular feedback from people about the care they received. The provider worked in partnership with a range of health and social care professionals to plan and deliver care and support.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

The last rating for this service was good (report published 28 September 2018).

Why we inspected

We were prompted to carry out this inspection due to concerns we received about staffing and recruitment. 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 this 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.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to recruitment, medicines and good governance. 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.