Archived: True Care

Updated 18 December 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

We carried out this announced inspection on 31 October 2015. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service. The inspection was carried out by a lead adult social care inspector.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service this included any notifications sent to us by the provider. We asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) before the inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. They provided this information in good time.

The inspector visited the agency office and looked at care records for a total of 5 people and visited two people, with their permission, in their own homes.

We looked at training records and recruitment records for staff. We also looked at records relating to how complaints and incidents were managed and how the provider checked the quality of the service provided. We spoke with the provider who is also the registered manager of the service, an administration staff and two care staff.

Updated 18 December 2015

This announced comprehensive inspection took place on 31 October 2015. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice of the first visit because the location provides support and personal care to people living in their own homes.

True Care is a small domiciliary care agency based in the hamlet of Gatebeck near to Kendal. It offers a range of services for people in their own homes. The service provides support with personal care and domestic tasks to help maintain independence for people living in and around the rural areas near to the town Kendal.

There was a registered manager in post on the day of our inspection visit. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. In this service the registered manager is also the registered provider.

During this inspection we found two breaches of Regulations 19 Fit and proper persons employed and 18 Staffing of the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2015.

Although people told us that they felt safe receiving care and support from this service we found information recorded in relation to the administrations of medicines was not always accurate.

The recruitment process for new staff did not include all the required checks to ensure that they were suitable for the work and help to protect people from the risk of abuse.

There were enough staff to provide the care people required. Staff had completed some training but not in all of the essential areas to ensure that they had the appropriate skills to provide safe care and treatment. Staff knew how to identify and report concerns about a person’s safety

People received support from a regular team of staff who they knew and who understood the care and support people required. We saw that people were treated with kindness and respect and they made positive comments about the staff who visited their homes.

People had been included in agreeing to the support they received and were asked for their views about the service. The registered manager was knowledgeable about the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and about their responsibility to protect the rights of people who could not make important decisions about their own lives.

Staff felt very supported by the registered manager and said they were confident and very happy with the leadership and management of the service.

We recommended that the provider ensured that the support people required with their medications was accurately recorded and that they followed the guidance from The British Pharmaceutical Society as described in The Safe Handling Of Medicines in Social Care.

We recommended that True Care provided it’s staff with care plans and records relating to their own care when providing care in partnership with another provider.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.