The Chester Link

Updated 24 October 2018

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.

This inspection took place on 21 September 2018 and was announced.

We contacted the registered manager of the service on 20 September 2018 to give notice of our visit on 21 September 2018 because this is small service and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure they would be available to speak with us.

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspection manager.

During the inspection we spoke with five people who used the service. We spoke with the registered manager and two support workers. We looked at care records for three people who used the service and recruitment, training and personnel records for three staff. We also looked at records around how the service was managed including quality audits, records of staff meetings and feedback the registered manager had received from people who used the service and their families. We also had some feedback from the local authority.

Before the inspection, the registered manager completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks for key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the agency, including the information in the PIR, before we visited the service. We used the information we held about the service to plan our inspection.

Updated 24 October 2018

We carried out this inspection on 21 September 2018. The inspection was announced. We gave notice because this is a small service and we needed to ensure the registered manager would be available to speak with us.

This service was last inspected in March 2016 and was rated Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. It provides a service to adults who have a learning disability. The service is provided in Chester, Cheshire.

There were 15 people receiving regulated activity at the time we carried out our inspection.

There was an experienced registered manager responsible for the day-to-day management of the service. 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 told us this was a good service and said they would recommend it.

The staff knew people well and treated them in a kind and caring way. People valued the service they received. There were enough staff to support people. People received support from a small team of staff who they knew. Safe systems were used when new staff were employed to check they were suitable to work in people’s homes.

The staff were well trained and skilled to care for people. They knew how to provide people’s care safely and to protect people from abuse and harm. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People consented to the care they received and their rights were respected. People’s needs were assessed and care was planned and provided to meet their needs.

People knew the registered manager and how they could contact her. The registered manager set high standards and checked the service to ensure these were met.

The registered provider had a procedure for receiving and responding to complaints about the service. They prided themselves on being response to any concerns raised before they became complaints.