About the service: Carewatch (Colebrook House) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people in their own houses and flats. It provides a service for up to 102 older adults. At the time of this inspection 88 people were being supported with personal care.

Not everyone using Carewatch (Colebrook House) receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with task related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ People did not always experience a consistent high quality, person-centred care and support.

¿ People were put at risk of receiving unsafe care and treatment because appropriate assessments were not always carried out with management plans for their needs to be met.

¿ People were not always supported with their medicines safely.

¿ People were not always supported at the time and duration planned for and sufficient staff were not always available to meet people’s needs.

¿ People’s privacy and dignity was not always respected.

¿ People said the service was not always caring and there was a language barrier between them and staff.

¿ People were provided with choice daily but they were not always involved in planning their care and support needs.

¿ The culture in the service was poor and staff teams did not consistently work together to deliver an effective service.

¿ The service was not consistently well-led and the management team lacked clear oversight and knowledge of how the service should be delivered.

¿ The systems in place to assess, monitor the quality of the service and drive improvement was ineffective.

¿ We have made a recommendation about working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and the handling of complaints.

¿ The provider had policies and procedures in place for safeguarding adults; however staff were not confident all abuse would be taken seriously.

¿ Staff received induction, training, supervision and appraisals but they did not feel supported in their role.

¿ People were supported to eat and drink for their health and well-being.

¿ People’s independence was promoted.

¿ People were supported to access healthcare services and the staff team worked in partnership with key professionals to provide joined-up care.

Rating at last inspection: This is our first inspection of the service since registering with us on 27 February 2018.

Why we inspected: This inspection was part of our routine scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of the care people received.

Enforcement: Action we told the provider to take (refer to end of full report)

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