Archived: Divinus Support Ltd

Updated 20 April 2024

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors.

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. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager.

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. This person was also the provider of the service. We have referred to them as ‘the provider’ throughout this report.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

Inspection activity started on 5 October 2023 and ended on 10 October 2023. We visited the location’s office on 5 October 2023 and attempted to carry out phone calls to people, their relatives and staff on the 7 and 8 October 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed our systems and information we held about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We were not able to speak with people who use the service. Despite repeatedly asking the service for their contact details, we were not provided with them. We did manage to speak with 2 people’s relatives about their experience of the care provided to their family member. We had contact with 6 members of staff including care staff, the administrator and 2 directors of the provider company. We reviewed a range of records available. This included care plans and staff recruitment records.

Updated 20 April 2024

About the service

Divinus is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. In this service, the Care Quality Commission can only inspect the service received by people who get support with personal care. This includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where people receive such support, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection there were 18 people using the service, 13 of which were in receipt of personal care.

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

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

People were exposed to risk of harm as systems to ensure the safe and proper management of medicines were inadequate. Since our last inspection care plans and risk assessments continued to lack robust and clear guidance, with incorrect or conflicting information. Risk assessments continued to fail to direct staff on recognising symptoms of known health conditions.

Staff had not always been safely recruited. References had not always been appropriately obtained and we were not assured staff had access to training.

Right Care:

Staff call monitoring systems were not always effective to ensure safe care delivery. The provider could not be assured people received their care calls as expected as there was a lack of monitoring. The provider was not monitoring care records to ensure people received kind and caring support.

Right Culture:

Governance systems remained inadequate, and the service was not well-led. The provider failed to carry out their regulatory responsibilities and did not have adequate oversight of the service. They lacked recognition and understanding of risk and subsequently lacked robust assessments and controls to protect people and keep them safe. There was a high number of incidents requiring police intervention and a failure to identify and act on where things were going wrong.

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 was inadequate (published 28 December 2022)

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 and well led which contain those requirements.

We have found evidence that the provider still needed to make improvements. Please see the safe and well led sections of this report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Divinus Support ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified continued breaches in relation to staff training, safeguarding, recruitment and oversight and management of the service.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

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

Special Measures:

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service therefore remains in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in ‘special measures’ will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it, and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.