Date of assessment 9 July 2025 - 22 July 2025 Somcare Agency Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our assessment, 86 people were receiving support with personal care. The service provides support for both younger and older adults. The provider identified risks in relation to people’s care and support needs to ensure they received safe and appropriate care. Medicines were administered as prescribed and in line with best practice. There was a recruitment process which enabled the provider to identify new staff who had the appropriate skills for the role. Staff undertook a range of training courses and were supported to keep up to date with good practice through team and supervision meetings. The provider had effective quality assurance processes to monitor the service, and the care provided. Staff felt supported by senior management.
PDF cached but not yet analysed by Claude; set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and re-run npm run etl:reports -- --location 1-4718246247.
Somcare Agency Limited received an overall Good rating following a focused inspection of Safe, Responsive, and Well-Led key questions, with Safe improving from Requires Improvement at the previous inspection. No evidence of harm was found and the service demonstrated strong person-centred care, effective governance, and responsive leadership.
Strengths
· People received personalised care reflecting their needs and preferences, with care workers matched to people's preferred languages and cultures.
· Medicines were managed safely with monthly audits, competency assessments, and consent procedures in place.
· Robust risk assessments including detailed fact sheets about medical conditions were accessible to staff at people's homes.
· Sufficient staffing with timely visits; staff allocated to small geographic areas to minimise travel time.
· Reablement service praised by people for supporting independence following hospital discharge.
Somcare Agency Limited received a Requires Improvement rating across all five key questions at its first CQC inspection, with three regulatory breaches identified covering safe care and treatment (Regulation 12), consent and Mental Capacity Act compliance (Regulation 11), and good governance (Regulation 17). Key failures included non-robust risk assessments, inconsistent medicines recording, inadequate MCA understanding, absent end-of-life care planning, and no audit systems, though safeguarding awareness, staffing, and relative satisfaction were noted as strengths.
Concerns (8)
criticalCare planning: “risk assessment was a tick box to indicate an assessment had been completed but there were no details of the actual risk and its severity and there were no risk management plans.”
criticalMedication management: “care workers were not always recording when they were supporting people with medicines and therefore we could not be sure medicines were being managed safely.”
criticalConsent / capacity: “the provider did not have a good understanding of the requirements of the MCA as the best interests decision checklist was not decision specific and was not fully filled out.”
criticalGovernance: “There were no audits to identify these discrepancies, so the provider had not identified those shortfalls and could not take action to address these.”
moderateEnd-of-life care: “the care plans did not contain any information around people's wishes, views and thoughts about end of life care as this had not been considered as part of the care planning process.”
moderateCommunication with families: “There was a lack of accessible information for people and care plans lacked communication support details.”
minorSupervision / appraisal: “As none of the care workers had been with the provider for longer than three months, they had not yet had supervisions or appraisals.”
minorPerson-centred care: “one care plan stated about religion, 'Just respect my faith', which did not give the care worker any guidelines about how to support the person's faith.”
Strengths
· Sufficient number of care workers employed with safe recruitment procedures including DBS checks and two references.
· Care workers could identify types of abuse and had completed safeguarding adults training in the last year.
· People were matched with care workers from similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds, supporting communication in first language.
· Relatives spoke positively about care quality, describing care workers as kind, respectful and understanding.
· Care workers had access to personal protective equipment and had completed infection control training.
Quality-Statement breakdown (18)
safe: Risk assessment and risk managementRequires improvement
Somcare Agency Limited improved from its previous Requires Improvement rating to Good overall, having resolved all three prior regulatory breaches relating to risk assessment, MCA compliance and governance. The service remains Requires Improvement for Safe due to inconsistent medicines recording practices and gaps in employment reference checking for two staff members.
Concerns (3)
moderateMedication management: “PRN medicines did not always have separate medicine protocol guidelines... some staff were signing the MAR with only one initial instead of two.”
moderateStaff training: “One staff member had references from a non-care employer and a friend but not the care agency they were working for at the time of their application.”
minorRecord keeping: “One person's MAR used the code 'T' but there was no explanation of what it meant.”
Strengths
· Improved person-centred risk management plans in place since last inspection
· Staff supported through induction, training, supervision and spot checks aligned with the Care Certificate
· MCA principles followed with decision-specific capacity assessments; previous breach resolved
· Care plans person-centred, detailed and regularly updated
· Registered manager completed leadership course and engages with network forums and Skills for Care guidance
Quality-Statement breakdown (25)
safe: Assessing risk, safety monitoring and managementGood
safe: Using medicines safelyRequires improvement
safe: Staffing and recruitmentRequires improvement
safe: Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuseGood
safe: Preventing and controlling infectionGood
safe: Learning lessons when things go wrongGood
effective: Ensuring consent to care and treatment in line with law and guidanceGood
effective: Assessing people's needs and choices; delivering care in line with standards, guidance and the lawGood
effective: Nutrition and healthcare needs recording
Requires improvement
caring: Accessible information and communication supportRequires improvement
caring: Dignity, respect and kindnessGood
caring: Cultural and linguistic matchingGood
responsive: End of life care planningRequires improvement
responsive: Person-centred care plan detailRequires improvement
responsive: Complaints handlingGood
well-led: Audit and quality monitoring systemsRequires improvement
well-led: Leadership accessibility and responsivenessGood
well-led: Staff supervision and appraisalRequires improvement
effective: Staff support: induction, training, skills and experienceGood
effective: Supporting people to eat and drink enough to maintain a balanced dietGood
effective: Staff working with other agencies to provide consistent, effective, timely careGood
effective: Supporting people to live healthier lives, access healthcare services and supportGood
caring: Ensuring people are well treated and supported; respecting equality and diversityGood
caring: Supporting people to express their views and be involved in making decisions about their careGood
caring: Respecting and promoting people's privacy, dignity and independenceGood
responsive: Planning personalised care to ensure people have choice and control and to meet their needs and preferencesGood
responsive: Meeting people's communication needsGood
responsive: Improving care quality in response to complaints or concernsGood
responsive: End of life care and supportGood
well-led: Continuous learning and improving careGood
well-led: Promoting a positive culture that is person-centred, open, inclusive and empoweringGood
well-led: How the provider understands and acts on the duty of candourGood
well-led: Managers and staff being clear about their roles, and understanding quality performance, risks and regulatory requirementsGood
well-led: Engaging and involving people using the service, the public and staffGood