Brookes Home Care Services Ltd

Updated 15 December 2022

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector and two Experts by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We visited the office location on 26 August 2022.

What we did before the inspection

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information and evidence we already held about this service, which had been collected via our ongoing monitoring of care services. This included notifications sent to us by the service. Notifications are changes, events or incidents that the provider is legally obliged to send to us without delay. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

We spoke with 16 relatives of people who used the service to help us understand the experience of people who could not speak with us. We also spoke with four people using the service. We spoke with the registered manager, a care coordinator, a field supervisor and four care workers. We reviewed the care records of seven people using the service, personnel files of five care workers and other records about the management of the service.

Updated 15 December 2022

About the service

Brookes Home Care Services Ltd is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were 42 people using the service. 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.

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

We have made one recommendation regarding recruitment.

There were recruitment procedures, to ensure the right staff were employed and people were protected from harm. However, it was not clear these procedures were consistently followed. It was not clear from records viewed that some references for staff had been verified. The provider took immediate action to update records. People were protected from the risk of harm and abuse. There were effective systems and processes in place to minimise risks. People’s relatives told us people were safe in the presence of care workers.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were supported to maintain their independence. People’s relatives told us about how care workers took time to support people to participate as fully as they could.

There were systems in place to ensure proper and safe use of medicines. We observed from records people received their medicines on time.

People received person centred care. Their needs were met through good organisation and delivery. Their assessments showed they had been involved in the assessment process.

Care workers were knowledgeable about people’s needs. They had completed essential training and we saw from records they were up to date with it.

People were protected from the risks associated with poor infection control because the service had processes in place to reduce the risk of infection and cross contamination.

There were governance structures and systems which were regularly reviewed. There was a complaints procedure in place, which people and their relatives were aware of. Quality assurance processes such as audits and spot checks were in place.

There was a process in place to report, monitor and learn from accidents and incidents. Accidents were documented timely in line with the service’s policy and guidance.

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 the previous provider was good, published on 6 May 2020.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.