We carried out a review of the data available to us about Abicare Services Limited - Bradford-on-Avon on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Abicare Services Limited - Bradford-on-Avon, you can give feedback on this service.
Abicare Services Limited – Bradford on Avon is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own home. At the time of our inspection there were 78 people using the homecare service. In addition to providing care in people’s home, the service was providing personal care for people who were staying in six hotels throughout the south west of England. The provision of care in the hotels had been set up by the local clinical commissioning groups (CCG), to support people who were waiting for care packages to be set up before they could move home after being discharged from hospital. This part of the inspection only covered the personal care provided by Abicare, and not the accommodation, which was overseen by the CCG.
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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People felt safe receiving care from staff, either in their own home or in a hotel. The provider had taken action to keep people safe and manage the risks they faced.
Staff had a good understanding of the support people needed. Staff were supporting people to do as much for themselves as possible. People’s needs were set out in clear support plans, which had been reviewed regularly.
People were supported to take any medicines safely and staff sought advice from health and social care services when necessary. The provider had worked with the hospital discharge teams to resolve some initial problems of access to medicines when people left hospital.
The provider had made changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and there were good infection prevention and control measures in place. People told us staff always wore the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) when providing care for them. At one of the hotels where people were receiving care, we observed staff had not always removed facemasks when they had finished providing care for people. Some staff were in communal areas of the building with their facemask under their chin. We raised the issue with the provider who said they would review practice with staff to ensure they followed the infection control procedures.
Staff received regular training and support. People felt staff had the skills and knowledge to meet their needs.
People were supported to access the health services they needed.
The provider had established good systems to monitor the quality of service provided and make improvements where needed. The provider had regular meetings with the clinical commissioning groups to review care being provided in the hotels and respond to any issues raised.
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 this service was good (published 7 June 2019)
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to infection control. 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 remained good, based on the findings of this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Abicare Services Limited – Bradford-on-Avon on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendation
We have made a recommendation about the use of personal protective equipment.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
People’s experience of using this service:
People told us they were happy with the service they received. They said staff treated them with respect and promoted their privacy, dignity and independence.
People felt safe and were supported by staff who knew them well.
There were enough staff to support people. Staff arrived on time and there were no concerns of support being missed.
Medicines were safely managed. Staff had received training in the safe administration of medicines and their competency was assessed every year.
Risks to people’s safety were identified and measures taken to minimise them. Accidents and incidents were appropriately reported and, reviewed to minimise further occurrences.
People were fully assessed and able to discuss their preferences, before being offered a service. This enabled their needs to be met safely and effectively.
People had support with meal preparation and to keep their home, clean and tidy if required.
People were encouraged to make decisions and were involved in developing and reviewing their support plans.
People were encouraged to give their views about the service they received. This was through annual surveys, telephone conversations or within reviews of their support.
People knew how to make a complaint although none had been made recently. Day to day concerns were quickly resolved but there was not an overview of the concerns raised. A system was being developed to enable this.
Staff were well supported. They regularly visited the office for informal support, and attended group meetings and one-to-one meetings, with their supervisor. The one-to-one meetings enabled staff to discuss their work and any concerns they might have.
Staff received a range of training, which included topics such as moving people safely and those related to people’s health conditions.
There were a range of audits, which assessed the quality and safety of the service.
The registered manager had clear expectations regarding the standard of support people should receive.
There was a caring ethos which was based on enabling, empowering and promoting independence. These values were adopted throughout the staff team.
Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection on 27 October 2016, the service was rated as Good. The report of this inspection was published on 25 November 2016.
Why we inspected: This was a planned, comprehensive inspection, based on the rating at the last inspection.
Follow up: We will monitor all intelligence about the service and complete another inspection in line with this and our frequency of inspection guidance.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
The service provided personal care to people living in their own homes. People received support through scheduled care visits or live- in care. On the day of our inspection the service was supporting 53 people.
There was a registered manager in post. 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 care records did not always contain information relating to people's capacity where it was required. This was not in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We have made a recommendation to the provider about MCA.
The registered manager promoted a caring culture that was reflected in the comments made by people and the attitude of staff. Staff felt valued and well supported. The registered manager was approachable and knew people well.
Staff received training to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs and had access to development opportunities.
Staff understood their responsibilities to report concerns relating to abuse of vulnerable people and where any concerns were raised action had been taken to ensure people were safe. Where risks were identified in relation to people’s care needs there were plans in place to manage the risks. People were supported by safe procedures to ensure they received their medicines as prescribed.
There were systems in place to ensure care calls were scheduled and to monitor for late and missed visits. There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs. People told us they had not received rotas regularly but were aware this was due to the introduction of a new scheduling system.
People’s changing needs were identified and reflected in their care plans. People were supported to access health professionals and advice and guidance followed.
Staff understood the importance of promoting independence and we heard many examples of the impact this had on people. Staff respected people’s dignity and found ways to ensure people were able to have privacy when they were supported with personal care.
There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and action was taken to improve where issues were identified.
This inspection took place on 29 July 2015 and we spoke with people who used the service, their relatives and staff on August 3 and 4 2015. This was an announced inspection which meant the provider knew two days before we would be visiting. This was because the location provides a domiciliary care service. We wanted to make sure a registered manager would be available to support our inspection, or someone who could act on their behalf.
There were two registered managers in post at the service at the time of our inspection. One of whom was an area manager. 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 were positive about the care they received and praised the quality of the staff and management. A social care professional said “ Abicare Carers know the clients that I support and have built up a good working relationship with them.”
Systems were in place to protect people from abuse and harm and staff knew how to use them. Staff understood the needs of the people they were supporting. People described their care was provided by staff with “kindness and compassion”.
Staff were appropriately trained and skilled. They received a thorough induction when they started work at the service. They demonstrated a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities, as well as the values and philosophy of the service. The staff had completed training to ensure the care and support provided to people was safe and effective to meet their needs. All of the staff we spoke with were clear the effectiveness of training was monitored through the supervision; and if necessary disciplinary processes.
The service was responsive to people’s needs and wishes. We saw that people’s needs were set out in clear, individual plans. These were developed with input from the person and people who knew them well.
We saw records to show formal complaints relating to the service had been dealt with effectively. People explained they were confident that any concerns or complaints they raised would be taken seriously and be dealt with promptly.
The registered managers’ assessed and monitored the quality of care. The service encouraged
feedback from people, their relatives and staff, which they used to make improvements.
Staff explained the importance of supporting people to make choices about their daily lives. Where necessary, staff contacted health and social care professionals for guidance and support.
We looked at the medication records and saw the staff team had reviewed their procedures and risk assessments.
There were sufficient systems to monitor the quality of the care provided by the service. This meant the staff team could be assured they were meeting people's needs effectively.
People said they were involved in decisions about their care. People we talked with were positive about the staff and the way they were supported by them.
We saw there was an effective system to ensure staff received frequent supervision to assist them care for people safely.
We looked at the medication records saw the staff team did not always complete an accurate record of the medication taken by people who used the service.
There were not sufficient systems to monitor the quality of the care provided by the service. This meant the staff team could not be assured they were meeting people's needs effectively.
We read other surveys completed by people who use the service and these expressed some concerns. For example, one person wrote that they wanted carers to stay longer at their home to assist with personal care. The manager told us that she visited this person to resolve the issues. She told us " I know every person we give a service to. It's important that they are happy. If people tell us they are unhappy with our service then I always visit them to try and sort it out ".
People described the staff using various terms such as 'excellent' and 'kind'.
A member of staff told us 'this is the best organisation I have worked for".