About the service: Angel Solutions Community Care provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults and adults with a learning disability. Not everyone using this service receives a regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. During the inspection we were told there were about 23 people using the service and receiving personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us that care workers were kind and caring and they felt safe using the service. We found significant shortfalls in the way the service was managed, these posed risks that people might not always receive safe or effective care. We requested further information from the provider following the inspection but this did not significantly reduce the concerns found. We have found eight breaches of the regulations and the service is now rated Inadequate in three key questions and overall.

¿ The management of risk was not always effective and placed people at risk of unsafe care or harm.

¿ The registered manager did not fully understand their responsibilities and this had not been identified by the provider. The service was not well led and there was a lack of robust and effective processes in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service.

¿ Accurate records of people’s care and records related to the service management were not always kept.

¿ We had mixed feedback from people about the timing of their calls. The registered manager and office staff could not demonstrate an effective and clear system to manage the timing and frequency of calls to people. This meant there was a risk people may not receive their care when needed.

¿ We were not provided with enough evidence to be certain that all staff received sufficient training or were assessed as competent to carry out their roles and meet people’s needs.

¿ There was no effective system for the deployment of staff to ensure people received their care as required and planned.

¿ Medicines were not always safely managed as guidance and the provider’s policies were not always followed.

¿ Safe recruitment processes were not always followed to ensure all staff were suitable for work in social care.

¿ People's human rights were not always upheld as the registered manager did not always follow the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

¿ People were not always provided with support that was personalised to them or identified their diverse needs.

¿ People did not always have access to information in a way that meant they could read or understand it.

¿ The registered manager had failed to notify of us about a notifiable event as they were required to do.

Rating at last inspection: The service was first registered with the Care Quality Commission on 19 February 2018. This was their first inspection since they registered.

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection.

Enforcement: Action we told provider to take:

The service met the characteristics of Inadequate in three key questions of safe, effective and well-led. We are taking enforcement action and will report on this when it is completed. Full information about the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) regulatory response to more serious concerns found in inspections and appeals is added to reports after any representation and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service closely and discuss ongoing concerns with the local authority.

The overall rating for the service is inadequate, the service will be placed in 'special measures'. Services in special measures will be kept under review and, if we have not taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider's registration of the service, will be inspected again within six mont