- Homecare service
Competent Healthcare Ltd
Report from 1 February 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
This assessment took place between 19 March and 16 April 2024. Competent Healthcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care services to people in their own homes. The service specialises in providing care for older adults. During this assessment we looked at parts of 4 key questions, safe, effective, caring and well led. We identified breaches in regulations of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The overall rating for this service combines scoring from the key questions we looked at during this assessment and key question scores in line with findings from our last inspection, where the service was rated good. There was not an effective governance system in place to monitor and improve the quality of care and safety of the service. Auditing and quality assurance information was not always available for inspectors to review. Completed audits were not always effective in identifying issues which needed to be addressed. The provider did not always robustly assess and reduce risks related to people’s care needs and medicines management. Care planning was not always clear about the specific support people required and how staff should support people to manage identified risks. The provider had systems in place to identify, record and report safeguarding concerns to relevant authorities. However, there was limited evidence that incidents were fully investigated to reduce the risk of recurrence. The provider did not always ensure their processes were fully in line with The Mental Capacity Act 2005 when people lacked capacity to make decisions about their care. There were enough staff in place to meet people’s needs, although staffing contingencies were not fully assessed, meaning it was unclear whose care should be prioritised in the event of an emergency.
People's experience of this service
People were happy with the overall quality of their care. They told us that staff had a good understanding of their needs and appeared well trained in their role. There was mixed feedback about the consistency of care call times and some people told us they were not involved in planning and reviewing their care. People told us they received appropriate support around managing their medicines and risks related to their care.