- Homecare service
Caremax Homecare Services Limited
Report from 22 April 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 29 April to 10 May 2024 Caremax Homecare Services Limited is a domiciliary care service providing a regulated activity of personal care. The service was providing care and support to people in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care; tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were 164 people receiving personal care from the service. We carried out this assessment after receiving concerns about staffing and staff training. We found 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe and effective staffing, risk and governance. There were not always enough suitably skilled staff to support people, calls did not always take place at the time people wanted and for some, they were often shorter than commissioned. Staff had not received all the training needed to meet people’s needs, and the registered provider could not demonstrate the quality and safety of the induction and ongoing training linked to people's needs. Staff were completing tasks without appropriate training and senior staff delivering practical training were not qualified to do so. This included checking staff competencies and delivering training for medication. Staff recruitment required improvement. Policies and systems were in place to help ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse. The provider’s oversight of call monitoring, staff training and risk was not robust. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people; respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. Although people told us they felt safe with the carers who supported them, people and relatives also told us there were language barriers that affected communication between some people and some staff. A relative told us, “Although [family member] appears happy, some carers cannot be understood.” People told us staff supported them with risks associated with their care. A person told us,” I am happy with the carers. They do all their tasks. I get on well with them. They look after me well.” However, our assessment found elements of care did not meet the expected standards as some staff had not always received appropriate training in relation to risk. We received mixed feedback from people about the timings of calls. Whereas some people had no concerns, some people found staff did not arrive on time and did not always stay the right amount of time. Similarly, people provided mixed feedback about the support staff provided with medicines.