24 August 2020
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Unicorn1care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care and support 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. At the time of our inspection there were 27 older people receiving support with a regulated activity.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Medicines were not always managed safely. We found some inaccuracies in medicine administration records. However, we did not find evidence that anyone had been harmed.
Quality assurance processes had been improved since our last inspection. However, further improvement is needed in medicines auditing.
People we spoke with were complimentary about the care provided by Unicorn1care Ltd. People told us that they were supported by regular care workers, who knew them well and supported them in the way they wished.
Staff recruitment procedures were robust and there were enough staff to care for people safely.
Correct infection control procedures were followed and staff wore the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) when carrying out care tasks. Additional infection control measures had been put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep people safe.
Care records were detailed and provided staff with sufficient person-centred information to enable them to support people appropriately.
We received positive feedback about the management and leadership of the service from everybody we spoke with, including staff, people using the service and relatives.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (report published 18 April 2019).
Why we inspected
CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on requirement and warning notices and to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Unicorn1care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection.
We have identified a continued breach in relation to the management of medicines. 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 safety in medicines management. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.