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Skillcare Limited

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Building 3, North London Business Park,, Oakleigh Road South, London, N11 1NP (020) 3640 7722

Provided and run by:
Skillcare Limited

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 7 June 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

One inspector and an Expert by Experience carried out the inspection. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people who used the service and their relatives. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type:

Skillcare Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes, including, older people and people living with dementia. CQC regulates the personal care provided.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission who was also the company director. This means that they are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Inspection site visit activity took place on 24 April 2019. We visited the office location on that date to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection, we looked at the information we held about the service and used this to help us plan our inspection. This included information the provider must notify us about, such as allegations of abuse. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection, we spoke with the registered manager, care co-ordinator, administrator, field care supervisor and two care staff. We received feedback from six people who used the service and eight relatives.

We reviewed a range records which included four people’s care files, four staff files, staff rotas, complaints records and quality assurance documents.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 7 June 2019

About the service: Skillcare Limited is a domiciliary care agency who provide personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to adults some of whom have physical disabilities and are living with dementia. On the day of the inspection, Skillcare Limited was supporting 28 people with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

All the people we spoke with who used the service told us they were happy with the care they received and would recommend the service to others. People received person centred care which met their needs. People told us staff were caring and considerate.

The service had improved significantly from previous inspections. The provider had embedded improved quality monitoring processes which resulted in better outcomes for people.

Processes were in place to ensure people received their medicines safely and as prescribed.

There were enough staff available to meet people’s care needs. Most people told us that staff were on time, not rushed and stayed the allocated visit time.

Staff were suitably trained, skilled and experienced and had undergone the required recruitment checks.

People told us they were asked for their consent and felt they had the independence they wished for.

People and their representatives were involved in the planning of their care and given opportunities to feedback on the service they received.

Rating at last inspection: Requires Improvement. The last inspection report was published on 6 June 2018.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the date and the rating of the previous inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

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