The inspection took place between 26 March and 4 April 2018 and was announced. Care 24-7 limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to both older adults and, younger disabled adults. At the time of the inspection, 101 people were receiving personal care from the service.
A registered manager was in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
At our last inspection, we rated the service good. At this inspection, we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.
We found the service was not always safe. Staff were trained in safeguarding people from abuse and put this training into practice. Staff had time to spend with people. We saw safeguarding procedures were in place and these were followed to help keep people safe.
Medicines were managed safely and staff had good knowledge of the medicine systems and procedures in place to support this. The support people received with their medicines was person centred and responsive to their needs. However, there was a shortfall in documentation; the provider had a plan in place to address this.
The service worked in partnership with other agencies including health professionals to help ensure people’s needs were met. People’s healthcare needs were assessed and plans of care put in place.
Staff were skilled and competent to meet the needs of people. Training was tailored to meet the needs of the residents. People were supported by kind, caring and compassionate staff. This meant people received good care.
There was enough staff deployed to ensure people received consistently and timely care. Staff were able to arrive on time and stay with people for the allocated amount of time. Safe recruitment procedures were followed to help ensure staff were of suitable character to work with vulnerable people. Staff received a range of training which was relevant to their role.
The service was compliant with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). People’s consent was sought before care and support was offered.
A complaints procedure was in place, which enabled people to raise any concerns or complaints about the care, or support they received.
Incidents and accidents were recorded and investigated by the service. We saw a low number of incidents had occurred with no concerning trends or themes.