Way Ahead Care - Bath and North East Somerset

Updated 17 April 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. The expert by experience’s area of expertise was older people.

Service and service type:

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 site visit to make sure that there would be staff available to speak with us.

Inspection site visit activity started on 26 March 2019 and ended on 26 March 2019. We visited the office location on 26 March 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

We reviewed various records including, training records, recruitment files for three employees, four care plans, audits, compliments and complaints and rota planning. We spoke with six people using the service, three relatives and seven staff, including the registered manager, coordinator and three care staff. We received feedback from healthcare professionals.

Updated 17 April 2019

About the service: Way Ahead Care – Bath and North East Somerset LTD is a domiciliary care service that was providing personal care to 94 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

The provider looked for ways to improve the service and the quality of care provided, this included operating a ‘positive complaints’ policy and speaking with professionals about how they could work together to improve the lives of people.

People told us their wishes were respected. Care plans included information important to the person, which promoted independence and was personalised to meet individual needs.

People told us that they were cared for by well-trained staff. Staff received training relevant to their role and told us the training they received was very good.

Staff, people and relatives spoke positively about the registered manager and management team. Staff told us that they felt well-supported and the registered manager was accessible to people and staff.

Staff who visited with people were kind and caring and people confirmed this. People received a service that was responsive to their needs and were involved with planning and reviewing their care.

The provider had an open and honest culture, when things went wrong the service apologised to people and looked to make changes to prevent a recurrence.

The service worked with others to explore ways that could improve the lives of people. For example, providing unpaid carers with the opportunity to access complimentary training sessions.

The provider had a programme of quality audits in place and reviewed and analysed information to identify potential themes and trends.

The service worked effectively with healthcare professionals to ensure good outcomes for people.

Rating at last inspection: ‘Good’ (September 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive. We will inspect in line with our inspection programme or sooner if required.

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