Biggs Healthcare

Updated 19 May 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video / phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

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 service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. However, a new manager had been recruited who was in the process of applying to register.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period of notice for the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the management team would be available to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 March 2022 and ended on 21 April 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.

We spoke with the managing director, the care coordinator and the nominated individual, who all work at the service. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also communicated with the new manager using remote technology.

In addition, we received written feedback from one relative and one professional, about their experience of working with the service.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records, medication records and staff files in relation to recruitment checks. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service. These included quality monitoring audits, and staff meeting minutes; to corroborate our findings, and ensure appropriate care and support was being provided to people.

Updated 19 May 2022

About the service

Biggs Healthcare is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care to adults living in their own homes. 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. At the time of our inspection, two people were using the service who had a range of care needs which included dementia and learning disabilities.

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

We (CQC) expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support: People’s rights were respected, and staff encouraged them to be as independent as possible. 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.

Right care: Staff provided kind, compassionate care and support which was person-centred; promoting people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. They had the right training and skills to carry out their roles and meet people’s needs. They made sure people had enough to eat and drink, and if anyone became unwell, staff knew how to access health care services to support people’s health and wellbeing. Staff also understood the importance of good hygiene and safe practices for the prevention and control of infection.

Right culture: The management team had created a positive culture which was person-centred, open and inclusive. We saw some good practice in terms of how the provider checked the quality of the service delivered, in order to drive improvement. However, we found improvements were needed with these checks; to ensure they covered all the areas that we (CQC) look at when we inspect registered services. This included taking action to ensure people always received their medicines as prescribed, reporting safeguarding concerns in a timely manner and completing all required recruitment checks for new staff before they begin working at the service.

The management team responded positively to our feedback. They confirmed they would be taking action to address all the areas we had identified for improvement.

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 10 July 2019, followed by a period of dormancy which ended in February 2021. This is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection, prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make some improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

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

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.