Careuk247 Home Care Cambridgeshire

Updated 15 December 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and 2 Experts by Experience. 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 and supported living agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and supports people who need support to promote more independence. This service provides care and support to people living in their own home.

Inspection activity started on 22 November 2023 and end on 5 December 2023. We visited the location's office on 22 November 2023. We provided feedback about our inspection findings on 5 December 2023.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to

manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. On the 24 November another registered manager registered with the service. This meant both registered managers were now equally responsible for managing the service.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the previous inspection. 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 this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 20 people who used the service, 19 other people's relatives and a person’s friend by telephone. We also spoke with 14 staff during our site visit or by telephone. These staff included both registered managers, senior care staff, field care supervisors and 9 care staff.

We reviewed a range of records, this included 6 people's care records. We looked at these people's medicines' records and 6 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were also reviewed, including incident records, staff training records, compliments, complaints, quality monitoring processes, and policies and procedures.

Updated 15 December 2023

Careuk247 Home Care Cambridgeshire is a domiciliary care agency and supported living service. At the time of our inspection 122 people were being supported in their own home, 99 of whom were supported with personal care. The service provides support to younger and older people, people living with dementia, people with a physical disability and people with a sensory impairment.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

Some medicines administration records had not been documented correctly, and not all safeguarding incidents had been reported to the local authority or the CQC. Some staff did not comply with measures designed to reduce the risk of infections spreading, such as wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) before entering people’s homes, unless there was a specific need, such as for certain contagious infections. No person had been harmed but this put people at risk of harm.

The registered managers addressed these matters promptly, but until we highlighted these, actions had not been taken. Staff however were clear on how to safely support people with their medicines, and lessons had been learned following incidents.

Staff supported people effectively with equipment to keep them safe by using an appropriate number of suitably skilled staff at a time that matched people’s needs.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. A relative told us how they had supported staff to learn typical English meals. The registered managers had addressed food preparation concerns with pictures of what cooked foods should look like.

Staff focused on and promoted people's equality and diversity, supporting, and responding well to support people to have good quality care. A person said, “I feel safe, as staff are very good to me. I take all my [medicines] morning and night and staff watch me to make sure I haven't dropped any.” Where people had concerns about the skills staff had or lacked, the registered managers were increasing staff skills by providing additional training.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people's needs and keep them safe. All those we spoke with felt people were safe and had enough support to do this. Although, some people felt staff were rushed, improvements had occurred in the past 3 months with more staff being recruited.

A person was very pleased with communication from the management team and said that when they had an accident, staff were quick to respond with advice to seek healthcare support which they did. This meant the communication to staff supported good quality joined up care.

Staff put people's wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. People were in the main, supported with their preference of care staff. People, relatives, staff, and health professionals had a say in how the service was run. Most quality monitoring systems were effective in identifying risks such as with care plans, learning lessons and implementing effective changes. In the main, the service worked well with others involved in people's care.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 10 May 2021).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns we received about staffing, safeguarding and risks to people, the culture and management of the service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We found some evidence that people were not always safeguarded and some records were not accurate. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Careuk247 Home Care Cambridgeshire.

Please see the safe and well-led section of this report. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.