London Care (South London)

Updated 19 September 2019

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:

This inspection was carried out by four inspectors, a member of the medicines team and two experts by experience.

An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and specialist housing. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission who had joined the service since the last inspection. 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 provider two working days’ notice of the inspection. We needed to let people using the service know that we would be in contact and be sure key members of staff would be available.

What we did:

Before the inspection:

We did not ask the provider to complete a provider information return (PIR). This is a document which asks for certain information about the service, including what they think they are doing well and their plans to develop the service in future. The provider had been submitting monitoring information to us weekly and we had been involved in a provider concerns process with the local authority.

We reviewed information we held about the service, including notifications of serious incidents that the provider is required by law to tell us about.

During the inspection;

We looked at records of care and support for 24 people who used the service and 11 medicine administration records and care plans. We looked at records of recruitment and supervision for 10 staff members. We also looked at other sources of evidence about the management of the service, such as electronic care monitoring (ECM) records, audits and communications. We spoke with the registered manager, area manager, regional director, quality assurance manager and an ECM officer.

We made calls to 24 people who used the service, five of their relatives and 10 care workers.

After the inspection:

We spoke with a contract monitoring officer from the local authority.

Updated 19 September 2019

About the service:

London Care (South London) is a domiciliary care agency which provides care and support to people in the London Borough of Southwark. At the time of our inspection there were 385 people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

There had been a significant improvement in the service. The office was now fully staffed and people’s visits were planned in advance.

Punctuality had improved and managers checked that care was delivered as planned. There was a variety of checks in place to make sure that problems were detected and that the service would continue to improve. Managers understood where improvements were still required and were acting on this. People were protected from missed or late calls.

People told us that they were treated with respect and their privacy protected. The service obtained people’s views about their care and acted on them to make improvements. People told us that most of the time they received care from the same care workers but consistency was not as good for some people, especially at weekends.

People had the right support to eat and drink and maintain their health. The service worked with healthcare services and the local authority to address issues of concern.

Care workers received the right training and supervision to do their jobs. Managers carried out spot checks to make sure staff were performing well and made sure care workers were engaged in the service. Care workers told us they could raise concerns and felt listened to.

People were involved in planning their care. People’s needs were assessed and care plans were in place to make sure these were met. People received care in line with their plans and managers checked this was taking place.

People were safeguarded from abuse and managers investigated allegations and complaints effectively.

Since our previous inspection, improvements have been made and medicines were being managed safely. We have made a recommendation about how the service reports and records changes to people's medicines.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

At our last inspection in December 2018 we rated the service ‘requires improvement’. Breaches of regulations were found concerning consent to care, safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance.

At this inspection we found the service was meeting these regulations.

Why we inspected:

This was a routine inspection. We arranged this to take place six months after the publication of the last report. This was because we had rated the service ‘inadequate’ in the key question ‘Is the service safe?’ We needed to check that improvements had been made.

Follow up:

The service was rated 'good'. We will continue to monitor information and intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection guidelines. We may inspect sooner if any concerning information is received.