Emblem Home Care

Updated 3 September 2022

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 one inspector.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

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. There was a registered manager in post but they were in the process of deregistering when the current manager had completed their registration. The current registered manager had oversight of the service in the interim, but support was available from the provider on a day to day basis.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to be sure that the manager would be at the registered office to facilitate the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 June 2022 and ended on 1 July 2022. We visited the location’s office on 28 June 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since their registration in July 2017. We asked the local authority and Healthwatch for any information they had which would aid our inspection. Local authorities, together with other agencies may have responsibility for funding people who used the service and monitoring its quality. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all this information to plan our 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.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service or their relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the two members of staff, the manager and the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. These included three people’s care records and extracts from others. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies, procedures and audit documents.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. The manager provided us with requested documents to demonstrate training, audits and feedback received directly to the agency about the quality of the service provided.

Updated 3 September 2022

Lion Care Service is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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. The service was supporting six people at the time of our inspection. All six people were supported with their personal care.

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

Overall people who used the service were satisfied with the care and support they received however the timing of people’ calls required improvement to ensure they were carried out when required to meet the person’s care and support needs..

Staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE), although feedback suggested it was not always worn appropriately increasing risks of cross infection when delivering personal care.

Quality assurance and service auditing processes were in place although these were not always effective in detailing areas where improvement was needed. Audits and policies and procedures were generic and not truly reflective of the service provided.

People were supported to be as independent as possible while taking their prescribed medicines. When staff offered people support, they were competent to do so. Improvements to recording processes and audits would enable the provider to ensure medicines were given safely.

People, and their relatives were involved in their need’s assessment and the development of their care plans. Choices and preferences were documented so staff could deliver person centred care. Overall, people spoke highly of their staff teams valuing consistency of staff.

People’s dignity and privacy was respected, and staff told us how they listened to people and delivered care and support in line with their wishes.

Staff felt well supported and well trained. They felt listened to and had opportunities to seek advice and support from the manager.

Risk assessments were in place to reduce or mitigate identified risks and these could be updated as people’s needs changed, as could care plans.

Staff understood how to safeguard people from the risk of potential harm. People’s complaints were listened to and acted upon. The manager was open and transparent and took opportunities to seek feedback in formally about people’s experiences of care provided.

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.

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

This service was registered with us on 07 July 2017 and this is the first inspection as they have been dormant for the majority of this time.

Why we inspected

We carried out this inspection in response to risk and information received about the service. Overall the risks identified had been mitigated prior to our inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.