Supportive Care Services Ltd

Updated 24 May 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 1 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. At the time of the inspection there were 7 people using the service.

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. The registered manager is also the provider.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service short notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 11 January and ended on 26 January 2023. We visited the office location on 12 January 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it registered with CQC. We sought feedback from the local authority.

The provider was asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 4 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 5 members of staff including the provider (who is also the registered manager), the care co-ordinator, 2 care workers and the director.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 3 people’s care records and medication records for 2 people. We looked at 6 staff members files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 24 May 2023

About the service

Supportive Care Services, is a is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service was supporting 7 people with personal care at the time of our inspection. The service was providing support to children, older and younger adults, learning disabilities; autism; mental health conditions and physical disabilities.

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

There was a lack of provider oversight which meant risks to people’s safety had not been identified and responded to appropriately. Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service were not effective, this placed people at risk of harm.

The provider's recruitment practices were not safe or robust, which meant people were at risk of being supported by unsuitable staff. Records had not been completed in relation to known risks to people or plans developed for managing these risks.

People who were known to express emotional distress did not have proactive behaviour strategies in their care records. This meant they did not provide detail on the specific actions staff should take to ensure

practices were least restrictive to the person and reflective of a person's best interests.

Staff training was inconsistent, and people were not always supported by staff who had all the skills and knowledge to meet their needs. For example, epilepsy training and catheter care. When people required medicines to be administered, there was no information about how people should be supported to take these safely.

The lack of systems and processes meant the provider had failed to identify the areas for improvement found at this inspection including the care planning, risk assessments, staff training and safe recruitment processes.

People and relatives we spoke with said they felt safe with the care provided and staff felt supported by the provider.

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 11 October 2021 and this is the first inspection.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

We have found evidence that the provider needed to make improvements

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

Enforcement

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

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of Inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.