27 February 2019
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Touch of Care Limited is a domiciliary care service providing support and personal care to people living in their own homes. It is registered to provide personal care to older people and people who are living with dementia and/or other long-term conditions. At the time of our inspection, one person was using the service.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
People’s experience of using this service:
¿ We met and spoke with one person using the service and their relative. They had no concerns about the staff who provided the care and support. The relative commented, “I think they’re very good”. The registered manager told us, “The girls always take to [named person] and she responds well to them. There are two carers at a time to get her in and out of bed, so I don’t think much can go wrong”.
¿ Despite this, risks to the person had not been identified, assessed or fully documented. There was insufficient guidance to staff on how to support the person safely in relation to their care needs. There was a lack of information about potential risks relating to falls, medicines management and skin integrity. This put the person at risk of unsafe care and treatment.
¿ Recruitment systems were not robust to ensure new staff were recruited safely. There were inaccuracies within the paperwork relating to potential new staff. People were put at possible risk because new staff were not vetted properly. Where new staff had a criminal record or criminal convictions, the registered manager had failed to risk assess them to ensure they were suitable to care for people in their own homes.
¿ Systems had not been established to measure and monitor the service overall or the quality of care delivered. However, surveys had been sent out and one person had responded positively.
¿ Lessons were not learned when things went wrong. The registered manager had not taken sufficient steps to ensure the safety of people receiving a service. The registered manager did not have a good understanding of how to meet the regulatory requirements.
The service continued to meet the characteristics of Inadequate in the areas inspected. More information is in the full report.
Rating at last inspection: The last inspection report was published on 22 February 2019. The overall rating was Inadequate.
Why we inspected:
This was an unannounced, focused inspection which took place following concerns raised by the local authority.
Enforcement:
The inspection checked to see whether the provider/registered manager was meeting the condition imposed in a Notice of Decision issued by CQC on 11 January 2019 and that this Notice of Decision remained appropriate. We found three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found in inspections and appeals is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
For less serious concerns, you can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor and review the service in line with our methodology for ‘Inadequate’ services.