Archived: Goldsmith Personnel Kingston

Goldsmith Personnel Kingston is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to older people and those with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 20 people using the service.

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

Quality assurance systems needed further improvements to ensure governance systems were robust and embedded. Incident management, records management and oversight of the service needed to be consistent.

Care plans would benefit from further personalisation and staff supervision records could contain more detail.

People and their relatives felt they were safe and that care staff administered their medicines when they needed them. Staff were clear on how to recognise and report signs of abuse.

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 and their relatives were involved in the development of their care. Complaints were well responded to.

People, relatives and staff felt well supported by management. The management of the service had made efforts to improve concerns identified at our last inspection.

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 25 October 2022).

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 the provider remained in breach of regulation 17.

This service has been in Special Measures since 25 October 2022. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 06 September 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment, consent to care and treatment, complaints, staffing, fit and proper persons employed and good governance.

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, Responsive 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 changed from inadequate to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to good governance at this inspection.

We have made recommendations in relation to staff support and personalisation of care records.

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

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Goldsmith Personnel Kingston is a domiciliary care agency providing the regulated activity personal care for 29 people at the time of inspection. The service provides support to older people.

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

People did not receive safe care from a well-led service. Potential risks to people were not identified or recorded in a timely manner. Staff did not always have the guidance they needed to support people safely. Staff did not always attend their care calls; the provider did not take action to address this.

Staff were not always safely recruited. Nor did they always receive sufficient supervision or training to support them in their roles.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.

Care was not always personalised and the provider did not take action to ensure incidents, accidents and safeguarding occurrences were investigated or reported. Management oversight of the service was inadequate and did not ensure the service was well-led. People, relative and staff comments were mixed in relation to their confidence in a safe service being provided.

People and relatives told us that carers treated them well and that they enjoyed their company.

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

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about a lack of safeguarding referrals. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

The first inspection for this newly registered service was also due.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, consent to care and treatment, complaints, staffing, fit and proper persons employed and good governance at this inspection.

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

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 request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. 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 is therefore 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.