# Austen Allen Homecare - Dartford

*Operated by Austen Allen Healthcare Limited.*

Austen Allen Homecare - Dartford is a CQC-regulated home-care agency in Dartford.

## CQC Ratings

| Key question | Rating |
| --- | --- |
| Overall | Good |
| Safe | Good |
| Effective | Good |
| Caring | Good |
| Responsive | Good |
| Well-led | Good |

Rating published: 04/05/2019

## Practical info

- Postcode: DA1 1BX
- Registered manager: Constant, Sarah
- Local authority: Kent
- Region: South East
- City: Dartford
- Last CQC check: 04/May/2019 - 00:00

## Inspection findings

### caring

- Finding
  - Confidentiality
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Involvement in care decisions
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Respect, dignity and person-centred care
  - Published: 2021-10-30

### effective

- Finding
  - Nutrition and hydration support
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Mental Capacity Act and consent
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Supervision and appraisal
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Staff training and induction
  - Published: 2021-10-30

### Other

- Finding
  - Evidence: People had access to healthcare professionals and adequate food and drink support, with food and fluid charts used where needed.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Evidence: Open and supportive organisational culture with visible leadership and accessible management team.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Evidence: Complaints were logged, investigated and responded to in line with policy, and used as an opportunity to improve the service.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Evidence: Staff received regular supervisions, annual appraisals and were well trained with relevant specialist skills including catheter care and PEG feeding.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Evidence: Safe recruitment practices were in place with thorough DBS checks, identity verification and reference checks consistently followed.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Evidence: Staff were kind, caring and treated people with dignity and respect; people spoke positively about care received.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **staff_training** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: The training manager told us that as the service only supports adults they do not cover safeguarding children in their training programme.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **safeguarding** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: The training programme did not contain any provision for safeguarding children.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **record_keeping** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: One person's care plan had not been updated in over two years. Risk assessments had several parts left blank with no mention of mobility issues.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **governance** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: Quality audits had failed to identify several shortfalls: care plans not updated for over two years, risk assessments partially blank, medicines systems not safe.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **consent_capacity** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: Bedrails were being used with no capacity assessment. Care plans contained references to mental capacity but lacked an underpinning assessment.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **person_centred_care** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: Care plans were not consistently person centred and did not always contain the detailed personal information required to support someone in a person centred way.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **care_planning** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: Some people's care had been commenced without a pre admission assessment meaning that carers were supporting people without a care plan in place.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **staffing_levels** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: Staff members were not paid for travel time...one care call is from 08.00-08.30 and the next call for that staff member will be 08.30-09.00.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **missed_or_late_visits** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: 50 care calls were delivered more than an hour later than the agreed time. 11 were more than an hour and a half late, with some being over two hours late.
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- **medication_management** _(critical)_
  - Evidence: MAR sheets did not list individual medicines, prescribing instructions and were not signed in. Carers recording 'dosette box' with no record of contents.
  - Published: 2021-10-30

### responsive

- Finding
  - Complaints handling
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Care planning and review
  - Published: 2021-10-30

### safe

- Finding
  - Infection control
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Risk assessments
  - Published: 2021-10-30

### well_led

- Finding
  - Organisational culture and leadership
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Communication with staff and service users
  - Published: 2021-10-30
- Finding
  - Governance and audit systems
  - Published: 2021-10-30

## Source

Data published by the [Care Quality Commission](https://www.cqc.org.uk/) under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Canonical page: https://homecarecompass.co.uk/agency/1-224723136

HomeCare Compass is an independent guide and is not affiliated with the CQC.