A home care provider in Romford has improved to be rated 'good' despite ongoing timekeeping problems being found.

Home Sweet Home Care in Great Cullings Road, Rush Green, achieved the second-highest rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following in inspection on April 25, with a report published last Wednesday (July 25).

The agency was rated 'good' in all five categories: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

This marked a turnaround having been rated 'requires improvement' by the health and social care regulator in July 2022.

In the 2022 report, it was found that staff were late for appointments and medicines were not always managed safely, despite an "open and positive culture" at the service.

But at the most recent inspection, Home Sweet Home was found to keep people safe, with good staff training and recruitment.

"People generally told us their experience of using the service was positive.

"Staff understood the importance of supporting people in a caring way and were able to explain how they did this," the report added.

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Despite the overall 'good' rating, CQC continued to find problems with staff timekeeping.

"We found shortfalls with staff timekeeping and that this had not been adequately addressed by the senior leadership team.

"Staff were often late for calls and did not always stay for the full amount of time allocated."

This chimed with people's experiences of the service after CQC spoke with ten care home users and 13 relatives.

"Overall, they told us the care they received was good, although several people and relatives expressed concerns about staff timekeeping."

However, the quality of care was praised, as was the level of support given.

"We were told that staff were kind and caring and that they understood the support needs of people," CQC added.

Safety was outlined as another positive by inspectors.

"Systems were in place to protect people from the risk of abuse," the report read. "Staff had undertaken training about safeguarding adults and understood their responsibility for reporting allegations of abuse."

Care was overall found to be carried out in a safe way with steps taken to prevent infection and administer medicine effectively.