Phoenix Gold Homecare Main Office

Updated 12 July 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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. The inspector visited the office location on 14 June 2022. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people and their relatives. 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. CQC does not regulate premises used for domiciliary care; this inspection looked at people's personal care and support.

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. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post who was also the provider.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service more than 48 hours' notice of the 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.

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 asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to the inspection; but did not submit this to CQC before our inspection visit. The provider told us they did not recall receiving CQC’s request for information. 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 asked the registered manager for the information contained in the PIR during the inspection visit. We used all this information to plan and conduct our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person who used the service and four people people's relatives. We spoke with, or received email feedback from, five members of staff including a senior care worker, the director (nominated individual), provider and registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people's care records and medication records. We reviewed two staff member's recruitment records to establish safe recruitment procedures were being followed. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

Updated 12 July 2022

About the service

Phoenix Gold Homecare Main Office is a is a community-based care provider that provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection there were 21 people in receipt of the regulated activity of personal care.

Everyone who received support at the time of our inspection 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

Risk assessment and risk management plans required improvement to ensure staff were always provided with up to date information on how to mitigate risks to people. Recruitment processes needed to be improved to ensure staff were always recruited safely. There were sufficient staff to support people safely with their scheduled care calls. Staff had received training in safeguarding and knew the actions to take to keep people safe. Overall, people's medicines were managed safely. The provider had infection control policies and procedures in place to guide staff on how to reduce the risk of infections.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff didn’t always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support the assessment of people’s mental capacity to determine how and when best interests decisions were made. Staff received induction and training in their role. The service worked with health and social care professionals to improve outcomes for people.

The provider had improved governance systems since our previous inspection and had introduced new auditing systems. However, governance systems were not always effective in identifying areas of improvement such as recruitment procedures and risk management. Staff spoke positively about leaders at the service.

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 June 2019). At this inspection this rating has changed to requires improvement.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of Safe, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed to requires improvement. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe, Effective and Well Led sections of the full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Phoenix Gold Home Care 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.