Home-care service needs to improve, says regulator CQC

The Care Quality Commission carried out an inspection at Cheviot Care Ltd in December, with the report published earlier this month.

But while the provider has been asked to improve, its rating for being caring – one of the five inspection areas – was good.

The report said: ‘People told us staff were kind and considerate. They said staff involved them in making decisions about their care.

‘People told us staff treated them with dignity and respected their privacy at all times. Confidentiality was maintained within the service.’

However, the service requires improvement in terms of being safe, effective, responsive and well-led.

Concerns included that medicine records were not complete and some medicines had not been recorded accurately, there was limited evidence recent training had taken place, reviews of care were not carried out formally and no formal quality checks or audits were undertaken. There had been no formal complaints in the previous 12 months though.

The manager at Cheviot Care, Marie Purvis, explained that the company was addressing the issues that were pointed out.

“Training is up to date, most of the book work is up to date and we are working on the other things,” she said.