Visiting Angels Northamptonshire

Visiting Angels Northamptonshire is a domiciliary care service providing personal care for people living in their own homes.

This is the first inspection of the service since it was registered on 3 April 2024. This assessment was carried out in part due to concerns we had received about the leadership.

At the time of this assessment the service was supporting 12 people with regulated activities.The Care Quality Commission [CQC] only inspects where people are in receipt of regulated activities such as personal care.

We spoke with 4 people and 2 relatives, and received feedback via CQC Give Feedback on Care webform. We also spoke with 6 caregivers, referred to as staff in this report, a senior caregiver, head of people, the manager and the nominated individual referred to as the provider. We looked at a range of records relating to people’s care, staffing and management records including policies and procedures. We also sought feedback from the local authority and health care professionals.

We found 3 breaches of legal regulations in relation to staffing, fit and proper persons employed and governance.

Governance and management systems were not effective and lacked scrutiny and consistency. Policies and procedures in place were not robust nor consistently followed. There was a lack of formal systems for incidents, accidents and complaints and duty of candour was not always upheld. The provider oversight was not effective. The absence of a service improvement plan meant opportunities to identify and address shortfalls and to drive continuous improvement were missed.

Although we found no evidence that people had experienced harm, we identified shortfalls in staff recruitment processes, training, and competency assessments. These issues meant the provider could not fully demonstrate that staff were suitably skilled and qualified to carry out their roles safely and effectively. Despite changes in leadership, staff told us they felt supported in their roles and had developed positive, trusting relationships with the people they supported.

The service had experienced changes in both management and provider leadership. The service did not have a manager registered with CQC; however, a manager was in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. They and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

People’s needs and risks were assessed, managed and monitored. Care plans provided sufficient guidance for staff to follow and were reviewed regularly. Staff knew what abuse looked like and were confident to report safeguarding concerns. Staff knew people well and they supported people with their medicines and to access support from health professionals when needed.

We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to some of the concerns identified at this assessment. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and / or appeals have been concluded.