Aroma Care - Cotswold

Updated 30 June 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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and 3 Experts 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 we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 May 2023 and ended on 23 May 2023. We visited the location’s office on 18 May 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. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 12 people who used the service and 19 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 7 members of staff including the registered manager, regional manager, senior care staff and 4 care staff.

We reviewed a range of records which included 6 people’s care records. We looked at 4 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.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at care records and quality assurance records. We gathered feedback from 4 professionals about their experience of the service.

Updated 30 June 2023

About the service

Aroma Care – Cotswold is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 63 people using the service.

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

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.

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.

We received mixed feedback from people, relatives and professionals in relation to staffing and consistency of care. The records we sampled confirmed that people’s visits were not always being delivered in accordance with their assessed need.

Governance and oversight across the service was in place. However, it had not always been effective in ensuring timely action had been taken to drive the necessary improvements with regard to staffing and consistency of care. The registered manager told us they were working to ensure audits were completed reliably and consistently. During our visit we did not see these improvements as they were yet to be reviewed and embedded.

Staff had access to the provider’s safeguarding and whistleblowing policies which were kept up to date. Staff told us they felt comfortable and confident to raise any concerns.

Staff spoke positively about the registered manager and told us they felt supported in their role.

Staff had received infection control training and had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) to safely manage and control the prevention of infections.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities around the duty of candour and to be open and honest with people when something goes wrong.

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 23 September 2020).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing and consistency of care. 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 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.

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

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to staffing and good governance 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.