Focus Care Link

First Care Link (FCL) is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to older people, people with dementia and people with physical disabilities. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were 108 people using the service.

Due to an issue with the service digital care planning system, risks in relation to people receiving treatment and care were not always managed appropriately. Quality assurance systems were in place, but these were not effective as they did not identify some of the shortfalls identified during our inspection. We found shortfalls in the implementation of the new digital care planning system. The registered manager told us that the information has not transferred from the old to the new system. This meant there was a risk that care was not always managed appropriately. The registered manager acted on our feedback from the inspection and was in the process of addressing the issues identified.

People told us they felt safe receiving the service and policies and systems were in place to help protect people from the risk of harm, abuse, and improper treatment. Medicines were administered following best practice. Staff told us they felt supported, and we saw that they had been safely recruited, appropriately inducted, trained, and that their competency to perform their role, was assessed. People told us they had confidence in the staff's abilities and that they treated them with compassion.