Midas Care Solutions Ltd

Updated 5 August 2023

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

This inspection was carried out by 1 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 houses and flats.

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.

Inspection activity started on 13 June 2023 and ended on 20 June 2023. We visited the location’s office/service on 15 June 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 5 January 2023 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people who used the service and 6 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 9 members of staff including the registered manager, care coordinators and care staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included 10 people's care records and multiple medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 5 August 2023

About the service

Midas Care Solutions Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. Midas Care Solutions Ltd provides personal care to people with dementia, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, younger adults and older people. At the time of the inspection 106 people were using the service for personal care.

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

Risks to people were not consistently assessed and planned for however staff understood how to reduce risks. Medicines were not consistently recorded in people’s medicine administration record to show they were given as prescribed.

People did not consistently have their health needs assessed and planned for, there was a lack of guidance for staff on how to support people to maintain their health.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and whilst staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not consistently support this practice.

Systems and processes to monitor the risks to people were not consistently identifying areas of concern and enabling improvements.

People were safeguarded from abuse as staff understood how to recognise potential abuse and reported any issues for investigation by the appropriate inspection. There were enough safely recruited staff to meet people’s needs. Where incidents had happened there were processes in place to reduce and prevent further incidents.

The provider had processes in place to learn and make improvements to the service and they worked with other agencies to provide people's care.

An initial assessment of people’s needs was undertaken, and people and their relatives were involved in this process. People were supported by a consistent staff team who were supported in their role and received regular updates to their training. Where people required support with their meals and drinks this was provided by staff.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Rating at last inspection.

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (6 August 2019). The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.

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

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to how people are supported to consent to their care and the governance of the service 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.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk