Background to this inspection
Updated
12 April 2022
The inspection
We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.
Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.
Inspection team
A single inspector carried out this inspection. They were supported by 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.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as telephone calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.
We spoke with twenty people who used the service and twenty relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with two members of staff including the provider, registered manager and quality manager.
We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at quality assurance and records relating to the management of the service.
Updated
12 April 2022
About the service
Supreme Care Services Limited (Greenwich) is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the agency was providing a service to 54 people. 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
During this inspection, we found some risk assessments contained limited information on what the potential risks were to people's safety and measures in place to mitigate the risks. Although the majority of people and relatives told us staff were punctual, there was some feedback where this was not the case. Feedback received also showed instances where staff did not always follow appropriate infection control practices. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of service, however some feedback indicated improvement was needed with communication.
The majority of people and relatives spoke positively about the quality of service they received. They told us they felt safe and staff knew their needs well. The provider had systems in place to record and respond to accidents and incidents. Any lessons learnt were used as opportunities to improve the quality of service.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 18 September 2019).
Why we inspected
This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.
We received concerns from the local authority in relation to late and missed calls, accidents and incidents/complaints not being followed up or dealt with adequately, lack of reporting to relevant bodies and management deployment leading to a lack of oversight.
As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Supreme Care Services Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We have identified a breach in relation to risk assessment.
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 for 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.