28 September 2020
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Advantage Nursing Agency Limited is a domiciliary care agency. At the time of our inspection, it was providing personal care to three people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults. Everyone using the service received support with 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
Since our last inspection we found improvements had been made to the service, which meant people received safe care. Risks to people had been reviewed; care plans were updated to reflect people's personalised health needs and detailed guidance was made available to staff with key information about the person's needs.
Other improvements included those of the management oversight of the service, due the introduction of a consistent auditing and quality assurance programme, as well as monitoring of staff training needs.
People told us they felt safe with staff and that staff knew them well.
Feedback from people was sought on how the agency could improve, and people told us they thought the agency was well managed and they felt comfortable raising concerns. Staff told us they felt valued and supported by the provider. The registered manager recognised the shortfalls identified at our last inspection and had worked to improve the service they provided and meet the requirements of their registration. They continued to look at ways to improve to enable them to provide the most appropriate care to people.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 15 August 2019) and there was a breach of Regulation 17 due to a lack of management oversight and poor record keeping. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found sufficient improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
Breaches of legal requirements were found when we carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 07 June 2019. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
We undertook this targeted inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing, and management of the service. This report covers our findings in relation to the key questions of safe and well-led which contain those requirements.
CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question. We undertook this targeted inspection to follow up on breaches and one recommendation identified at the previous inspection. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Advantage Nursing Agency LTD on our website at www.cqc.org.uk