Eclipse HomeCare (Worcester)

Updated 26 March 2019

The inspection:

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 Adult Social Care Inspector and one expert 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 and caring for older people.

Service and service type:

Eclipse Homecare is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides support to adults, including people with dementia.

Not everyone supported by Eclipse Homecare receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the registered manager is also the registered manager at other locations and we needed to be sure that they would be available.

Inspection site visit activity started on 13 February and ended on 18 February 2019. We visited the office location on these dates to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service including notifications the service was required to send us about things happening in the home, information from other stakeholders, for example the local authority and information from members of the public. In addition, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection we spoke with six people using the service, one relative of a person using the service and seven caregivers. We also spoke with the nominated individual, registered manager and five members of the office team. We reviewed care and medication records of four people, recruitment files of two people, records of accidents and incidents and complaints, quality assurance audits performed by the provider and observed induction training.

Updated 26 March 2019

About the service:

Eclipse Homecare is a domiciliary care service providing support to people in Worcester and the surrounding area. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting approximately 200 people.

The service refers to people it employs to support people as ‘caregivers’ so we have used the term ‘caregivers’ throughout this report.

People’s experience of using this service:

People using the service spoke highly of the care and support they received. People felt they had a regular team of caregivers who knew them well.

People were encouraged to remain as independent as possible and told us that caregivers would encourage them to do the things they could for themselves. People told us they did not feel rushed when they were being supported and felt their caregivers had enough time to spend with them.

Caregivers told us they felt well trained and supported and felt able to raise any concerns or suggestions with management.

The service had recently completed a pilot with the local authority to give people more flexibility in how they were supported and what they wanted support with.

People’s needs and preferences were included in their care planning, reflecting their cultural backgrounds. People told us they felt involved and able to contribute to their support plan and that their choices were respected.

The culture of the service encouraged people to speak up where they felt things could be improved or were not working well. The management of the service responded to complaints positively and used them to try and improve the service.

The management of the service tried different ways of engaging with people to improve the service and reviewed how effective they had been.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (8 February 2016)

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating of the service at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service through information we receive and future inspections.

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