Intermediate Care Service

Updated 23 July 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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience who called people for gain their feedback. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Since our last inspection the provider had deregistered the regulated activity of providing accommodation to people. This service now only provides intermediate care services to people. It provides short term personal care and reablement support to people living in their own houses, flats or in a care home following their discharge from hospital.

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

This inspection was unannounced.

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to make arrangements to speak with people, and staff, and to be sure the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

We visited the office location on 25 June 2019 to see the registered manager, and to review care records. Telephone calls were made to people and relatives on the 25 and 26 June 2019 to gain their feedback.

What we did before the inspection.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as allegations of abuse. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all this information to plan our inspection visit.

We spoke with 16 people and two relatives over the telephone to gather their views on the service being delivered. We also spoke with four reablement staff, an assessor, intermediate care services manager, occupational therapist team leader, two area managers and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of documents and records including the care records of four people, three staff files and training records. We also looked at records that related to the management and quality assurance of the service.

Updated 23 July 2019

About the service

Holly Bank House provides intermediate care services to people that live in the Walsall area. This includes people that live in their own homes and people that are staying in a care home as part of their rehabilitation pathway. The aim of the service is to help people recover skills and confidence to live at home, maximising their level of independence so that their need for ongoing homecare support can be appropriately minimised. Interventions for majority of people will typically last up to six weeks. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 38 people.

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

People told us they felt the service was safe and there were sufficient staff to meet their needs. Staff supported people to remember to take their medicines and were aware of how to keep people safe from potential risk of harm. Risk assessments were in place and staff knew how to support people’s individual needs to ensure they provided a consistent level of care. Staff wore gloves and aprons to ensure they protected people from cross infection.

Staff had received training for their role to maximise people’s potential to regain independent skills which they may have lost when they were unwell. The service worked in partnership with healthcare colleagues to ensure people had access to the support they needed to meet both their social and healthcare needs. People had choice and control of their lives and staff were aware of how to support them in the least restrictive way.

People made positive comments about the staff that supported them. People told us the staff encouraged them to be independent, protected their privacy and treated them with dignity and respect.

People told us they were happy with the service provided, and they knew who to contact if they had any concerns. People were continually consulted and involved in the way their support was provided. The service was monitored to ensure people were making progress to regain their skills and to ensure their needs were being met.

Staff felt supported in their roles, and described the management team as approachable, open and transparent in the way they managed the service. Systems were in place to monitor the delivery of the service and the registered manager had acknowledged that more audits were required to check and monitor the records completed.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 9 September 2016).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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