Maidstone Home Care Limited was rated Requires Improvement overall following a focused inspection prompted by safeguarding concerns, with breaches identified in safeguarding (Regulation 13), good governance (Regulation 17), and notification of incidents (Regulation 18). Despite strong feedback from people, relatives and professionals about caring staff and a person-centred culture, the provider had failed to report safeguarding concerns, maintain updated training, and operate effective quality oversight systems.
Concerns (8)
criticalSafeguarding: “the providers safeguarding processes failed to ensure professionals were made aware of an issue to enable them to ensure one person's safety. This left them exposed to risk.”
critical
Staff training
: “The provider had not ensured they or staff had received updated safeguarding training to keep up to date with changes to legislation and best practice.”
criticalGovernance: “The provider had failed to establish systems and processes to assess and improve the quality and safety of the service provided or to assess and monitor risks.”
moderateCare planning: “Care plans did not always contain detailed information about people's health conditions and this increased the potential risk of harm.”
moderateIncident learning: “the registered manager was unable to evidence learning from incidents”
moderateRecord keeping: “Records did not contain details of how this condition affected the person or actions to take in the event of a crisis.”
moderateSupervision / appraisal: “Staff did not always receive sufficient training and supervision was generally informal.”
moderateLeadership: “The registered manager did not always demonstrate their knowledge of regulatory requirements. They had not always understood their duty to notify CQC of events within the service.”
Strengths
· People and relatives spoke highly of the registered manager and staff, describing them as 'excellent, marvellous'.
· Person-centred culture with a consistent team of staff who knew people well.
· Medicines were managed safely and administered on time via an app-based system.
· Safe recruitment practices including DBS checks and reference verification.
· Effective infection prevention and control with adequate PPE supplies and training.
Quality-Statement breakdown (10)
safe: Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuseRequires improvement
safe: Assessing risk, safety monitoring and management; Learning lessons when things go wrongRequires improvement
safe: Staffing and recruitmentGood
safe: Using medicines safelyGood
safe: Preventing and controlling infectionGood
caring: Ensuring people are well treated and supported; respecting equality and diversityRequires improvement
caring: Respecting and promoting people's privacy, dignity and independenceGood
well-led: Managers and staff being clear about their roles, and understanding quality performance, risks and regulatory requirementsRequires improvement
well-led: Promoting a positive culture that is person-centred, open, inclusive and empoweringGood