Agincare UK Leominster

Updated 20 August 2021

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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

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.

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought or rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.

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

Inspection activity started on 05 July 2021 and ended on 13 July 2021. We visited the office location on 08 July 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four members of staff including the, registered manager, field supervisor, care coordinator and the administrator. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. Along with a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including staff and service user surveys.

After the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke to three care staff including a care support worker, senior care worker, and team leader. We looked at the providers quality assurance audits and documentation relating to work completed with the community. We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 20 August 2021

About the service

Agincare UK Leominster is a care at home service providing personal and nursing care to 159 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection.

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.

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

People were safe and supported by staff who cared for them. Staff recognised different types of abuse and how to report it. The registered manager understood their safeguarding responsibilities and how to protect people from abuse. Potential risks to people's health and wellbeing had been identified and were managed safely. People, and where appropriate, their relatives, had been involved with decisions in how to reduce risk associated with people’s care. There were sufficient staff to keep people safe and meet their needs. People's medicines were managed in a safe way. Safe practice was carried out to reduce the risk of infection.

People were supported by staff who treated them well. Staff treated people as individuals and respected the choices they made. Staff treated people with respect and maintained their dignity.

All people, relatives and staff felt the registered manager had made positive improvements to the way the service was run. The registered manager listened to people and staff's views about the way the service was run. The provider had put checks into place to monitor the quality of the service provision.

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 good (published 23 November 2018).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staff culture. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe, caring and well-led sections of this full report.

We received concerns in relation to staff culture. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, caring and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

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

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.