Background to this inspection
Updated
6 July 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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
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.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 72 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.
Inspection activity started on 19 June 2023 and ended on 27 June 2023. We visited the location’s office on 19 June 2023.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed the information we already held about the service. This included their last inspection report and notifications. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers 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 of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection.
During the inspection, we spoke with the provider, registered manager and quality assurance manager. We reviewed documents and records that related to people’s care and the management of the service.
We reviewed 5 staff files, which included pre-employment checks and 5 care plans which included peoples support needs. We looked at other documents such as quality assurance and training records.
We also spoke with 3 relatives of people who used the service and 3 staff members.
Updated
6 July 2023
About the service
Head Office, Mercylink Care Services Ltd is a domiciliary care agency and is based in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. The service provides personal care to adults and children 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 the inspection, the service was supporting 7 people with personal care.
People’s experience of using this service
At our previous focused inspection of this service on 3 August 2020, we found concerns with training, risk assessments, pre-employment checks and good governance. We completed a targeted inspection on 22 November 2020 to check on good governance and training and to follow up on warning notices we served in relation to these and found improvements had been made. At this inspection, we found further improvements had been made.
Risks were identified and assessed to ensure people received safe care. Staff were aware of how to safeguard people from abuse. Systems were in place to ensure staff attended calls on time. Systems were in place to prevent and minimise the spread of infections when supporting people. Pre-employment checks had been carried out to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people. Medicines were being managed safely.
Staff had been trained to undertake their roles effectively. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People received care from staff who were caring and had a good relationship with them. People’s privacy and dignity was respected. People were encouraged to be independent and to carry out tasks without support.
People received person-centred care. Care plans had been reviewed regularly to ensure they were accurate. Systems were in place to manage complaints and people’s communication needs were met.
Quality assurance systems were in place to identify shortfalls to ensure there was a culture of continuous improvement.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The previous rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published 18 September 2020) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. We issued warning notices for a breach of Regulation 17 (Good Governance) and Regulation 18 (Staffing). There were also requirement notices issued for Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) and Regulation 19 (Fit and proper persons) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
Why we inspected
We undertook this comprehensive inspection to check if there were improvements regarding the concerns we identified at the last focused inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.