Quality Assured Care Services Ltd

Updated 26 October 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 team consisted of two inspectors and a specialist nurse advisor.

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 24 hours’ notice of 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 September 2022 and finished on 28 September 2022. We visited the location’s office on 13 and 22 September 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and sought feedback from the local authority. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information provider are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We looked at four people’s care plans, records relating to medicine competencies and training, and a variety of records relating to the management of the service. This includes audits, staff meetings and recruitment records. We spoke with 15 people and their relatives and nine members of staff. This included care workers, the registered manager and nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Updated 26 October 2022

About the service

Quality Assured Care Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 42 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

Staff received safeguarding training and understood their responsibilities to report potential safeguarding concerns to the registered manager. Risks to people’s health, safety and wellbeing were assessed and formed part of a needs assessment. This information was used to develop care plans and guide staff on how to manage those risks. Systems were in place to ensure the safe recruitment of staff. This included references and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. Staff received training in medicine administration and their competency was assessed. Only staff assessed as competent could support people with their medicines. Staff understood and followed safe infection control guidelines and knew how to minimise risks of infection.

We received positive feedback from people about Quality Assured Care Services. People felt well cared for and looked after. The provider used audits to monitor and improve the quality and safety of care. Some of these audits could be improved to ensure they gathered information that was valuable to the service in order to identify where improvements could be made. Surveys were used to gather feedback from staff and people about the service. The results were analysed and used to make changes in response. The provider and staff worked with other health and social care professionals to improve people’s outcomes, and ensure people received care and treatment that was relevant to their changing needs and circumstances.

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 requires improvement (published 2 September 2019).

Why we inspected

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

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

Follow up

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