Quality Care Services (Derbyshire) Limited

Updated 1 April 2021

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an assistant inspector who made telephone calls to staff and those using the service and their relatives.

Service and service type:

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

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. The visit took place on 18 February 2021 at the office location site visit to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included checking incidents the provider must notify us about, such as serious injuries and abuse. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the provider and reviewed a range of records. This included all or parts of records relating to the care of nine people as well a range of staff files. We also viewed training records and records relating to the safety and management of the service.

After the inspection

We asked the registered person to provide us with a variety of additional information. All information was sent within the required timeframe. We used all this information to help form our judgements detailed within this report. We spoke with seven people and three relatives and asked them about the quality of the care provided to them or their family members. We spoke with eight care staff.

Updated 1 April 2021

Quality Care Services (Derbyshire) Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care for people living in their own houses and flats. People are supported in their own homes so that they can live as independently as possible. CQC regulates the personal care and support. There were 176 people using this service at the time of our visit.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they had a good relationship with staff and management. They felt they were well cared for and the carers knew their needs. People said they preferred to have the same staff and didn’t like different one’s at each call.

At our last inspection medicines management was not effective. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the registered manager had identified a new electronic system to make further improvements.

Quality assurance processes were in place, however the provider was in the process of transferring information onto an electronic system to give the management more oversight of the service and staff.

Staff training was up to date and staff received supervision of their practice, training was carried out by eLearning and staff received practical training on moving and handling on induction. People had access to health professionals when they needed specialist assistance, or their health needs changed.

Since our last inspection we found there had been improvements in management oversight. The process had started, and improvements were being implemented.

People’s care records contained guidance for staff on how to support them. The care records had been reviewed regularly and had relevant risk assessments in place. Complaints were responded to in line with the provider’s complaints policy a copy of which was given to people with other information on the service.

Rating at last inspection and update: The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 18 December 2020). At this inspection the service had improved to good.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about pressure area care. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe sections of this full report.

Follow up

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