17 April 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
London Care is a domiciliary care agency providing the regulated activity of personal care to people who live in their own houses and flats. At the time of our inspection there were 96 people using the service.
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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
There were systems in place to monitor, maintain and improve the quality of the service. People and relative’s spoke positively about the leadership of the service. However, whilst staff spoke about their passion and commitment for the work they do, the majority of staff told us they felt unsupported, communication was poor and any issues or concerns they raised either with the office staff or management team were either not responded to or not followed up.
Staff felt confident their training provided them with the knowledge they needed to support people safely. People told us they received safe care from staff who knew them. There was a safeguarding policy in place and the registered manager, and staff knew how to identify and report concerns. The service had enough staff to meet the needs of people using the service. Staff had been safely recruited and pre-employment checks carried out.
Staff had received training in medicine administration. People told us they received their medicines on time. Staff told us they had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and there were effective infection control measures in place. People confirmed appropriate PPE was worn by staff when being provided with care and support.
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.
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 good (published 4 January 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about people’s care and treatment and poor conduct of managers and office staff. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
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 remains good based on the findings of this inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.