About the service:

Swale Drive (Muslyt Ltd) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care for people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿Recruitment practices did not ensure that staff were safe to work with vulnerable people before they started to care for them.

¿People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and it was not clear when people lacked capacity to make a decision for themselves.

¿ Systems to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided were insufficient.

¿Care plans did not always contain accurate or up to date information.

¿People received care from staff who were kind and caring. Staff had developed positive relationships with people and had a good understanding of their needs and preferences.

Rating at last inspection:

Requires Improvement (report published 14th February 2018).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Enforcement:

At this inspection, we found the service to be in breach of three regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated activities) Regulations 2014.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found in inspections and appeals is added to reports after any concerns found in inspections and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. Should further concerns arise we may inspect sooner.

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

This inspection took place on the 21 August 2017 and was announced. Swale Drive was registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection four people were receiving care and support.

This was our first inspection of the service since they registered with us in September 2016. This service had been supporting people for approximately three months.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Recruitment practices were not robust and had not been consistently followed to ensure staff employed were suitable for their role. We observed that essential employment checks for some staff had not been obtained.

We have made a recommendation about recruitment policies and procedures.

Care staff did not receive a comprehensive induction and adequate training to ensure they had the right skills to effectively deliver care to people.

People felt safe when staff supported them within their home and there were sufficient numbers of staff to support people. People were protected from harm by staff who knew how to report any concerns. Assessments of the risks to people's safety were in place and regularly reviewed.

The principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) were considered when supporting people. People were supported and encouraged to follow a healthy and balanced diet. People's day to day health needs were met effectively by the staff.

People and their families had formed good relationships with the staff that cared and supported them. There was a complaints policy in place which people who used the service and their relatives knew how to access.

People were treated with respect and dignity and they were involved with decisions made about their care and support. Information was available for people if they wished to speak with an independent advocate. People were supported to live as independently as possible.

People had plans of care in place which contained details of people’s preferences, life histories and support that people required.