Advantage Healthcare - Tees Valley

Updated 22 December 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

One inspector carried out this inspection.

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 provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the home 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

We spoke with 2 people who used the service and 1 relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 9 members of staff including the registered manager, 2 nurses, and 6 care staff. We sought feedback from external healthcare professionals.

We looked at the care records of 4 people, other records related to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found.

Updated 22 December 2022

About the service

Advantage Healthcare – Tees Valley is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal and nursing care to children, young people and adults living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of our inspection 17 people were using the service.

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

We 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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

Right Support: Staff supported people to be fully inclusive in society. Care plans were detailed to support staff in delivering care and support safely. Information from external healthcare professionals was used to create risk assessments and care plans. Staff supported people to access external healthcare professionals when needed. The provider gathered information about people’s communication needs.

Right Care: People received person-centred care. Staff worked with people to achieve their set goals. The provider promoted a positive, person-centred culture. The registered manager and staff put people’s needs and wishes at the heart of everything they did. The provider had systems in place to ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse and harm. Environmental and individual risks were identified and managed.

Right Culture: People were encouraged to take control of all aspects of their lives, including education, shopping and looking after their homes. The registered manager and nursing team were passionate about providing quality care. The provider had a strong oversight of the service. The registered manager critically reviewed the service to determine how further improvements could be made.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 20 July 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook this focused inspection to see if the service had improved from requires improvement to good. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions of Responsive and Well-led.

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 changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Advantage Healthcare – Tees Valley on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.