• Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Initial Care Services South East Limited

Overall: Inadequate read more about inspection ratings

116 Marshall Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME8 0AN 0330 053 8126

Provided and run by:
Initial Care Services South East Limited

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of assessment: 23 September to 03 October 2024. An assessment has been undertaken of a specialist service that is used by autistic people or people with a learning disability. We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found 5 breaches of legal regulations in relation to safeguarding, safe care and treatment, staffing, need for consent and good governance. The provider’s safeguarding processes were not effective in recognising and acting on all safeguarding concerns raised by people. Risks to people were not always effectively identified and assessed. The provider did not have effective systems and processes in place to ensure staff competencies were appropriately checked and monitored.. The provider did not ensure people’s mental capacity was adequately assessed and that they supported people to fully engage in the assessments. People were at risk of their rights not always being upheld and their unwise decisions not being respected. The provider’s systems and processes did not fully consider national best practice guidance on supporting people with learning disability and autistic people, for example around assessing their needs, wishes and experiences of living with a learning disability. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we user our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

24 September 2019

During a routine inspection

About the service:

Initial Care Services South East Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support for people in their own homes. The agency is a new service, which provides care and support for people in Medway and Kent areas. At the time of our inspection, there were 19 people using the service.

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:

People received safe care and support from Initial Care Services South East Limited. The registered manager and staff we spoke with knew what their responsibilities were in relation to keeping people safe from the risk of abuse.

Care plans contained detailed risk assessments. Risk to people’s health and wellbeing were addressed and mitigated. Environmental risk assessments were also in place, which identified and reduced any environmental risks to people and staff.

Staff were skilled in carrying out their role. The registered manager ensured staff were appropriately trained.

People told us staff communicated well with them and they felt at ease with them.

People’s needs were assessed prior to receiving a service including their protected characteristics under the Equalities Act 2010.

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 were cared for by staff who treated them with kindness, dignity and respect.

People were encouraged to raise any concerns they had or make suggestions to improve the service they received.

The service had an effective system in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided.

Staff told us there was an open culture where they were kept informed about any changes to their role. Staff told us the registered manager was approachable and listened to their ideas and suggestions.

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

Rating at last inspection:

This service was registered with us on 19 January 2018. They started providing services from January 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned comprehensive inspection.

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.