Archived: First City Nursing Services Ltd Chippenham

Updated 25 January 2017

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

We undertook a comprehensive inspection of First City Nursing Services Chippenham on 22 December 2016. This involved inspecting the service against all five of the questions we ask about services: is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

Before carrying out the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included the Provider Information Return (PIR) which is a form that asks the provider to give key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at the notifications we had received. Notifications are information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We also looked at the results of questionnaires which were sent to people who use the service, their relatives, members of staff and healthcare professionals.

The inspection visit was undertaken by one inspector. We looked at three people’s care records. We looked at medicine records, staff recruitment files, staff training and competency records, audits and action plans, and other records relating to the monitoring and management of the service. We spoke with the operations director, the registered manager, an area trainer and five care staff. As part of our inspection, two further inspectors spoke on the telephone with three people who used the service and three relatives.

Updated 25 January 2017

First City Nursing Services Chippenham is a domiciliary care agency which provides nursing and personal care and support for people living in their own homes in the Chippenham area. At the time of our inspection four people using the service were receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

We carried out a comprehensive inspection on 22 December 2016. The inspection was announced which meant the provider was informed in advance that we would be visiting. This was because the service is provided to people in their own homes and we wanted to make sure the registered manager, or someone acting on their behalf, was available to support the inspection.

There was a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People’s needs were assessed before they started to receive support from the service. People and their relatives were involved in the planning and reviews of care, were supported to make decisions, and were given the opportunity to provide feedback on a regular basis.

Systems were in place to manage risks and protect people from abuse. Staff had received training, were aware of their responsibilities and knew what actions they needed to take to make sure people were protected.

Recruitment checks were in place to make sure staff were suitable for their role. Staff received training to make sure they had the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to provide the care people needed.

Staff understood how to support people with personal care whilst maintaining their privacy, dignity and independence. One person told us, “I can’t fault the service at all, it’s perfect.”

People’s concerns were listened to and acted on. A complaints procedure was in place, and we were told that complaints would be investigated and responded to in accordance with the provider’s policy.

Robust systems were in place to assess, monitor and mitigate risks to people and to improve the quality of the service provided.