Dignity Direct Homecare Limited

Ratings

• Overall

  Requires improvement

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Requires improvement

• Well-led

  Requires improvement

Our view of the service

Dignity Direct Homecare Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of the assessment, there were 63 people receiving personal care. The service provides support to people including people living with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We expect health and social care providers to have regard to the CQC ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance. This assessment was prompted in part by concerns about safeguarding incidents and management of the service. Date of assessment: 15 August 2024 to 17 September 2024. During the onsite assessment, we spoke with the branch manager, finance manager, HR manager, risk assessor, and a field supervisor. The registered manager was on leave. We spoke with 24 people and their relatives and 6 care staff. For this assessment, we looked at 8 quality statements: safeguarding, involving people to manage risks, safe and effective staffing, medicines optimisation, person-centred care, listening to and involving people, governance, management and sustainability and learning, improvement and innovation. At the last inspection in September 2017, the service was rated good. At this assessment we found that the quality of care had deteriorated. The provider was found to be in breach of six regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, effective staffing, person-centred care, need for consent, good governance and fit and proper persons employed. Improvements were required in relation to risk management, staff recruitment and deployment, staff training, person centred care and governance. CQC have decided to take enforcement action against the provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.

People's experience of this service

People and their relatives gave us mixed feedback about their experiences of care. People confirmed that they felt safe when receiving care from staff. One person told us, “I have been having an excellent male carer for 2 years now and the whole family know I am secure in his care.” However, people and relatives said the communication with the provider was unclear and they were not aware if staff were adequately trained. People and their relatives reported issues with timekeeping including short visits, people not receiving their agreed care calls and not always receiving the right level of support required to safely support them. Some people and their relatives told us, they also had no access to their care and support plan.