London Care (Westminster)

Updated 19 June 2024

Date of Assessment: 26 September to 5 November 2024. London Care (Westminster) is a domiciliary care agency that provides care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of our assessment 254 people were using the service, although not everyone received support with personal care. The last rating for this service was requires improvement (report published 4 October 2022), when we identified breaches of regulations in respect of safe care and treatment and good governance. We carried out this assessment to follow up these breaches and make sure the provider had made the required improvements. We looked at all the quality statements for safe and well-led and a selection of quality statements for the remaining key questions of effective, caring and responsive. We were satisfied that enough improvements had been made to assessing and mitigating risks to the health and safety of people using the service. In addition, systems and processes were being operated effectively to monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. This meant the provider was no longer in breach of any regulations and the overall rating for this service is now good. People received a safe service, were protected from abuse or neglect and had their human rights promoted. The service followed safe recruitment processes and there were enough staff deployed to support people. There were effective processes to ensure people’s medicines were managed and administered safely. Care and risk management plans were individual and met the needs of people using the service. Staff knew people well and understood how they liked to be supported with their individual needs. There was a clear management structure and staff felt supported in their roles. The provider sought feedback from people, relatives and staff and used this to develop the service. There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and identify when improvements were required.

Updated 19 June 2024

People told us they knew who to contact if they had any issues and they were comfortable raising concerns. People confirmed that lessons were learned if things went wrong and changes were made to improve the service. People said they received safe care and support from staff that worked collaboratively and communicated well with other professionals. People told us staff helped them to recognise risks in their daily lives and took action to reduce these as much as possible. People knew about their care plans and risk assessments and had been involved in compiling them. People said staff respected their homes and confirmed that risk assessments included health and safety for themselves, as well as staff, within their individual home environments. People we spoke with told us they were happy with the care staff and believed they were recruited properly, skilled and appropriately trained. People said they felt the service employed enough staff. They said staff were usually on time and always completed all the tasks they were required to do. People said care staff were clean and hygienic and followed appropriate infection control procedures. The people who received support with their medicines told us they were happy with the way the service and care staff managed these. People told us that care staff always sought consent before doing anything for them and worked in accordance with their wishes. People told us they were supported to maintain their independence. They said the care and support they received was personal to them. Most people said they had regular care staff, who knew them and their needs very well. People said they felt they were treated fairly and supported in accordance with their individual needs and wishes. Nobody had experienced any discrimination or inequality. People told us the care workers helped them access external resources when they needed them.