Archived: Supporting People

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 the inspection the provider was only supporting one person with personal care.

This person’s care was funded through a local authority direct payment agreement. A direct payment is the amount of money that the local authority has to pay to meet the needs of people and is given to them to have control and choice over who they choose to provide their care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The person’s relative was very positive about the level of care their family member received. They felt they received a safe service and had developed a good relationship with the care staff and management team. They added, “They just do everything really well, communicate with us, listen and involve us and keep [family member] happy and comfortable.”

The relative was positive about the kind and caring attitude of the staff team, who supported them regularly and knew their family member well. They added, “Because of this, they fully understand their needs and know if they are becoming unwell.”

Although the issues we found did not directly impact the level of care and support the person received, some improvements were needed as important information related to their care was not always recorded or in place to ensure staff were following best practice.

The provider was aware of the increased risks of COVID-19 to the person and ensured staff had the necessary training and equipment to keep the person safe and reduce the risk of cross infection. The relative said, “They kept us updated throughout the pandemic and did a great job, keeping the care we needed throughout. It was very helpful.”

The relative was positive about the management of the service and told us they had regular opportunities to feedback about the care. They knew how to contact the provider and were confident they would deal with any issues if they did arise.

The person was supported by staff who told us they were well supported in their role and spoke positively about working for the company.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service under their previous location name was good, published on 12 March 2020.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Supporting Care North East Branch on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This was also due to the service changing its location name on 27 April 2021.

As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

Enforcement

We have identified one breach in relation to safe care and treatment.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

During the inspection, the provider told us they were planning on deregistering this service and any people using the service would be transferred over to their other registered service called ‘Supporting Independence’, managed by the same provider. The provider told us this would likely be done within the next three to six months.