Diversity Social Care Ltd

Diversity Social Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were eleven children, younger people and adults using the service. The service supports people with a range of needs, including physical and learning disabilities, and conditions associated with old age.

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.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Staff recruitment and training had improved. Staff had undertaken training in key areas to enable them to provide people’s care and support safely. Further improvement was needed to ensure staff’s competency had been assessed to perform individual aspects of people’s care, known as a delegated health care task.

Potential risks had been assessed, and people’s records had improved to provide greater detail and information to enable staff to provide safe care and support. People’s records detailed the medicine they were prescribed, and staff had received training in the management of medicine.

Systems to support the monitoring of the service were in the early stages of implementation, this included an electronic monitoring system to record all aspects of people’s care and support. People’s views, and that of their family members and staff about the quality of the service had been sought through the sending out of questionnaires. Feedback from all parties had been positive.

Family members spoke positively of the service, and this in part was due to a core group of staff, who had developed positive and supportive relationships with their relatives. Family members spoke of the dedication and genuine compassion and care shown by staff. They also spoke of the approachability and flexibility of the service under the leadership and direction of the registered manager.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 1 May 2019. We carried out a focused inspection of this service and looked at the questions is the service Safe and Well-led between the 24 and 28 August 2020 (published 1 October 2020.) The service was rated as requirements improvement in both key questions.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced focused inspection of this service on 24 August 2020. Breaches of legal requirements were found.

In response to the previous focused inspection we issued a Warning Notice for a breach of Regulation 17, Good governance. The Warning Notice required the provider to improve by 9 December 2020. We also issued a Requirement Notice for a breach of Regulation 12, Safe care and treatment. The provider submitted an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

This inspection was carried out to follow up on the action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of Safe and Well-led.

Diversity Social Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were eight children, younger people and adults using the service. The service supports people with a range of needs, including physical and learning disabilities, and conditions associated with old age.

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.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Staff recruitment, induction and training was flawed, which meant people were cared and supported by staff who had not always undergone a robust recruitment process, and had not received the appropriate training and guidance to provide safe care. Systems and processes to assess risk were not consistently implemented, and guidance for staff on how to reduce risk was not sufficiently documented. This placed people at risk of receiving unsafe care.

The registered manager had not kept the quality of the service provided under review. Policies and procedures had not been followed, and where potential shortfalls had been noted, insufficient action had been taken to bring about improvement. Systems to monitor the quality of care were not systematically or effectively implemented. The support of staff through training and ongoing supervision had not been ensured, and the seeking of people’s views about the service were not routinely sought, and views when received were not analysed to drive improvement.

Staff had a good understanding of safeguarding, and how and who to report concerns too. Staff had a good level of knowledge as to people’s needs, and how they cared and supported people. People and family members spoke positively about the care provided, stating they felt safe as they were supported by a core group of staff who knew them well, who arrived on time and who they had developed positive relationships with.

People and family members spoke positively of the care they had received during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the measures taken by staff to keep them safe, which included staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment [PPE]. People who were prescribed medication told us staff did not support them to manage this aspect of their care, as they managed it themselves or received support from family members.

People and family members were positive about the quality of the care they received, and spoke positively of the attitude and approach of staff in the delivery of care. Many people shared information as to how positive relationships developed with staff had contributed to their receiving good care.

People, family members and staff spoke positively of the registered manager. Reflecting on their commitment to provide reliable and good quality care.

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 1 May 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted due to information received regarding staff training not being up to date. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the keys questions of safe and well-led.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

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 will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so

We have identified breaches in relation to management of risk to ensure people’s safety and the governance of the service at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve documentation to support the safety of service users. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.