4 April 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
The Robert Atkinson Centre is a domiciliary care agency providing support for people in their own homes. The service was supporting 5 people at the time of the inspection.
People's experience of using this service and what we found
The provider did not ensure staff were recruited safely. Appropriate checks were not completed prior to staff supporting people. This placed people at risk of harm.
The provider did not have effective systems to monitor the safety and quality of the service.
People were happy with the care and support provided. The registered manager ensured people had a regular team of staff. Staff were introduced to people prior to providing support. People told us they looked forward to staff visiting. People and families were involved in assessments.
The provider had systems in place to investigate safeguarding concerns. Staff had completed safeguarding training. Individual and environmental risks were identified and mitigated against. Systems were in place to ensure people would continue to receive support in the event of an emergency.
The registered manager conducted regular visits to gather feedback. The service liaised with healthcare professionals and their information was included in care plans.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was good (published 5 January 2019).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the recruitment and management of staff. 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.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
Due to the shortfalls found during the inspection the provider was requested to produce an action plan detailing what action and by when that they would address the issues identified.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to safe recruitment and monitoring the safety and quality of the service.
Follow up
We have already requested 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.