Empowerment Care Ltd

Empowerment Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The service provided support to older people, people with dementia or mental health issues and those who may have physical or sensory disabilities. There were also supporting people who had a learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder. There were 19 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

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.

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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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

Right Support

People’s care plans and risk assessments did not always identify how to support them with their individual needs. Staff had not always received training in these key areas to ensure they could support people in a safe way. People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. The staff did not always support people in their best interests.

Right Care

Some improvements were needed to people’s care plans, although some were person centred, these were not always updated in a timely way and not all health risks were assessed and planned for. The provider had failed to ensure the management team were aware of and following best practice guidance. No staff had received learning disability training, which is now a requirement for all services who support people with a learning disability.

Right Culture.

The provider was not always identifying concerns external professionals had, and their recommendations had been not always acted on. This meant lessons were not always learnt from incidents which left people at risk. The Registered Manager was responsive to our feedback and told us they would put measures in place to reduce risks that had been identified during the inspection. People, relatives and staff were positive about the Registered Manager. Staff knew their people well and staff left supported in their role and felt able to raise concerns if needed.

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 22 June 2022).

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 the provider remained in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing and safeguarding. 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 report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Empowerment Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to managing people’s risks, staffing and governance and oversight 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 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.

Empowerment Care Ltd provides personal care to people living in their own homes. There were seven people using the service at the time of our inspection.

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

People did not always receive their medicines as prescribed and the systems that were in place to monitor did not always identify this. Audits were inconsistently completed and when concerns had been identified action was not always taken to ensure improvements were made. The provider was not always identifying concerns when external professionals and people themselves were identifying these. There was some evidence that lessons were learnt when things went wrong, however some areas of improvement were not identified and further improvements were needed.

People received support from staff who they felt had the skills and knowledge to support them, this was verified by competency assessments that were completed. There were enough staff available to support people and their suitability to work with people in their homes was checked before they started employment.

Individual risks to people were considered. People were protected from potential harm when concerns had been identified and there were procedures in place for this. Infection control procedures were also followed. 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 were supported by staff that knew them well. They were happy with the staff that supported them. People’s privacy and dignity was considered and maintained. They were encouraged to make choices and remain independent.

People’s preferences including their likes and dislikes, were considered, and they received support based on these needs. Peoples’ communication was considered. There was a complaint policy in place, which was followed when needed.

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

This service was registered with us on 25 October 2016, however it remained dormant until 16 March 2021. The service did not start delivering a regulated activity to people until November 2021. This is the first inspection under this provider.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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 discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to regulation 12, Safe care and treatment and regulation 17, 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.