Brockley, London

Updated 7 September 2022

Inspection team

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 a single inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

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 24 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 checked information we held about the service such as registration information. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. 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 used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Inspection activity started on 24 June 2022 and ended on 18 July 2022. We visited the location’s office on 24 June 2022.

Updated 7 September 2022

About the service

Brockley, London is a domiciliary care agency. At the time of our inspection the service was providing personal care to two older people and employed one care worker. The registered manager was supporting one of the people who used the service and was in the process of hiring another care worker. Both people using the service were private clients, meaning their care was not funded by the local authority.

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

People gave good feedback about the care they received. One person told us “It’s a good service, they treat me with kindness and respect”.

The provider did not consistently manage risks to people’s care. We saw examples of the provider identifying risks to people and not conducting and implementing risk management procedures. The provider did not support people with their medicines, but did keep a record of the medicines people were taking. However, these did not include information about what these medicines were for and whether there were any side-effects to these. The care worker had received training in infection control and understood what measures to take to keep people safe.

The provider developed support plans with people, but these did not always include personalised detail about how they wanted their care delivered, for example their preferences in relation to their food.

The provider was still in the process of implementing and developing governance frameworks and systems of audit. However, the registered manager did not fully understand regulatory issues relating to risk management, which meant he did not identify the issues we found.

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:

We registered this service on 25 September 2020 and this was the first inspection. This location was dormant until March 2022. This meant that the provider was not providing personal care to people until this date and therefore could not be inspected.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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 monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have found breaches in relation to the delivery of person- centred care, the management of risks and good governance.

Recommendations

We have made recommendations in relation to medicines management and DBS checks. We will check if the provider has acted on any recommendations at our next comprehensive inspection.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.