Archived: Aston Home Care Limited

Aston Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received 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. The service was supporting 34 people at the time of our inspection of which 23 were supported with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support

Overall people told us they were satisfied with the care and support they received. However, some people did not always receive their care calls on time, were not always told about delays or changes to the care staff expected such as female staff members. The manager had already identified this as a concern and was actively recruiting for more staff at the time of the inspection.

People told us they felt safe and received the support they needed by staff who were recruited safely. People had support to manage their health and were supported to take their medicines safely.

Staff had received training in how to support people safely and how to report any concerns. However, some people told us they felt new and agency staff needed further training in how to support people living with dementia.

Right Care

Care plans and risk assessments were in place to support people to live their lives whilst keeping the risk of harm to a minimum.

People were supported to eat and drink in line with dietary preferences, and the provider worked with other professionals to ensure people's health needs were met.

Right Culture

Staff were aware of people's needs and received spot checks and supervision to support them in their role.

Complaints were managed and responded to effectively. When things went wrong the provider ensured lessons were learned and actions taken to drive improvements.

Quality assurance systems were not fully embedded; however checks were in place to monitor daily tasks, medication administration and the management team were already in the process of updating care records.

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 at the previous premises was requires improvement (published 22.12.21) and there was a breach of regulation.

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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained as requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a

separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Aston Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency that is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes.

Not everyone who used the service received 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. At the time of the inspection, 69 people were supported with their personal care needs.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The provider had not consistently assessed the risks to people associated with their care and support.

The provider had not completed holistic assessments of care and support for people. As a result, staff did not have sufficient or up to date information to effectively support people.

The management team and provider did not have effective systems in place to identify improvements and drive good care. Although, the provider had systems in place to learn from incidents, accidents or dangerous occurrences this was not effectively or consistently applied to ensure people received safe care and treatment.

The provider completed assessments of risks associated with people’s physical living environment and supported them to access services to improve safety where needed.

When required, people received safe support with their medicines by staff members who had been trained and assessed as competent. Staff members followed effective infection prevention and control procedures when supporting people.

People were protected from the risks of ill-treatment and abuse as the staff team had been trained to recognise potential signs of abuse and understood what to do if they suspected wrongdoing.

People were supported by staff who had received an effective induction training programme, on-going training and one-to-one supervision.

People were supported to refer themselves to additional healthcare services, and staff supported them if required.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and the provider supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the application of the policies and systems supported good practice.

People received help and support from a kind and compassionate staff team with whom they had developed positive relationships. People were supported by staff members who were aware of their individual protected characteristics like age, gender and disability. People were treated with dignity and had their privacy respected by those assisting them.

People were provided with information in a way they could understand. The provider had systems in place to encourage and respond to any compliments or complaints from people or those close to them. The provider, and management team, had good links with the local communities within which people lived.

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

Why we inspected

This service was registered with us on 1 March 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified a breach in relation to the risk assessment process for people at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

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