Archived: All Care - West Berkshire

All Care – West Berkshire is a community care provider providing personal care to 49 adults at the time of the inspection. This included people living with sensory impairments, physical disabilities and dementia. The service employed 27 staff which included 19 care workers.

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

There were not always sufficient suitably qualified and experienced staff deployed to safely meet people’s needs. Calls were late, shortened, missed or cancelled as a result. Both people and relatives expressed their dissatisfaction with the completion of their commissioned calls. Although some incident and accidents were recorded, many were not recorded at the time they occurred. Adults at risk of abuse or discrimination were protected from such harm by the service. Staff and the service took appropriate steps to protect people from the risk of infections, such as COVID-19.

Not all staff training was up to date. As staff had covered vacant shifts and worked some long hours, they did not have time to complete or refresh their statutory and mandatory training. People and relatives stated regular care workers knew their preferences and how they liked to be supported. However, they stated that regular changes in staff without notice meant that staff did not always know how to best support them. There were appropriate risk assessments in place related to people’s support packages.

There was mixed feedback from people and relatives about how caring the service was. However, most praised the regular care workers that supported them. They commented that they were kind and provided support in the right way. People and relatives were involved in care planning. People’s privacy and dignity was protected.

Care plans contained the necessary information to support people. They included how care should be planned, delivered and evaluated. There was a satisfactory complaints system in place.

The governance of the service was not always effective. Failure to continuously monitor increasing burden from people’s packages of care meant that personal care calls started to be rushed, missed, late or cancelled. Although people and relatives had contacted the service to complaint, they reported difficulty reaching staff by phone. Some people had resorted to ringing care workers on their own mobile phones to check whether they would receive their care. During a large staff absence on a weekend, the business continuity plan was implemented. Whilst steps were taken to meet complex care packages, other people’s care was cancelled, and relatives were asked to provide support instead. This led to frustration amongst some people and relatives involved, and a loss of trust and confidence in the service. The service worked with the local authority to ensure that people’s care needs were being met. The local authority had contacted people to ensure calls were being completed. The local authority confirmed to us after the inspection that calls were being carried out in accordance with the commissioned care.

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.

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 28 August 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staffing shortages and alleged poor communication from the service with people and relatives. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe, Effective and Well-Led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.