Carlton Home Care

Updated 10 December 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. 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience contacted people receiving this service and their relatives. 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.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means 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

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. The inspection started on 2 October 2019 at the office location and a second day at the same premises took place on 4 October 2019. An Expert by Experience made phone calls to people and relatives on 3 October 2019.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we had received from the service including notifications about incidents in the service the registered manager is required to make. We also asked the local authority, safeguarding teams and other professionals, including Healthwatch who have contact with the service for any information they could share. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We did not receive any information of concern. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager, the care coordinator, two team leaders, the training coordinator, the governance lead and four other members of staff, four people who received this service and five relatives. We looked at five people's care plans in detail as well as other records including those connected with recruitment and training, medicines administration and quality monitoring.

Updated 10 December 2019

About the service

Carlton Home Care provides a domiciliary care service, providing support to people in their own houses and flats in the community.

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 our inspection, 58 people were receiving a regulated care service.

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

People told us they received their medicines as prescribed. Staff completed medication training and their competency was checked

Care plans were person-centred with information about people’s life history and their preferences. Some aspects of care planning needed further detail which was added during our inspection. Staff demonstrated their knowledge of people’s care needs and action needed to reduce risks to people.

Overall governance systems were effective. Issues identified during our inspection were acted on promptly. Staff told us they felt able to approach the registered manager with any queries or concerns.

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

People felt safe and protected from the risk of harm. Staff described signs they would look for to identify abuse and records showed appropriate action was taken to safeguard people.

There were sufficient numbers of staff who were safely recruited. People and relatives said they had not experienced any missed calls. Staff received a regular programme of support through training, supervision and appraisal. The training matrix showed high levels of completion in mandatory and specialist subjects.

People were supported by staff to access healthcare services and records. Staff provided good examples of occasions when they recognised a deterioration in people’s health. People’s dietary needs were identified and met by staff.

People and relatives told us staff were kind, caring and compassionate. People’s privacy and dignity needs were met and staff supported their equality, diversity and human rights. People’s communication needs were recorded in care plans.

Risk assessments identified individual risks to people.

We have made recommendations to the registered provider to continue to monitor improvements in assessing the likelihood of risk and with regards to monitoring call times.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 3 October 2018).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

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