Stockwellcare Support Services

Updated 30 June 2023

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

The inspection was conducted by 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience. 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

Stockwellcare Support Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

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 a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the managers would be in their office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 14 June 2023 and ended on 20 June 2023. We visited the provider’s offices on the first day of this inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke in-person with various managers during our site visit including, the registered manager and operations manager. We also received telephone and/or email feedback from various people in relation to their experiences of using or working with or for Stockwellcare Support Services. This included 5 people who received a care at home service, 3 relatives, a friend, a community social care professional representing a local authority, and 9 care staff who worked for this provider.

Records we looked at as part of this inspection included, 6 people’s care plans, 5 staff files in relation to their recruitment, multiple electronic medicines records, and a variety of other documents relating to the providers’ overall management and governance systems.

After we visited the provider’s offices, we continued to seek clarification from them to validate evidence found. We requested the provider send us additional evidence after our inspection in relation to staffs call visit rosters and staff training.

Updated 30 June 2023

About the service

Stockwellcare Support Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 55 older people were receiving personal care at home from this provider. The Care Quality Commission (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 receiving a home care service, their relatives and community health and social care professionals were positive about the standard of care provided by Stockwellcare Support Services. People using the service and those working with and for the provider also agreed the service had improved in the last 6 months. A relative told us, “I love everything about the agency. The company is now run very well and my loved ones needs are fully met.” A social care professional added, “My colleague and I recently visited the provider and we found they had made great improvements since their last CQC inspection. Currently we have no issues with this provider and we are pleased with the improvement they have made.”

At our last inspection we found the provider had failed to ensure; risk assessments and management plans were sufficiently detailed, staff wore personal protective equipment (PPE), call visits were well-coordinated, staff were suitably trained, and the service was well-led.

At this inspection we found enough improvements had been made. People had up to date care plans that contained detailed risk assessments and management plans to help staff keep them safe. Staff followed current best practice guidelines regarding the prevention and control of infection including, wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) as and when required. People received consistently safe, good-quality personal care from the same group of staff who were familiar with their needs and who now arrived on time for their scheduled call visits.

Staff received the right levels of training and support to deliver safe and effective care to people. Since our last inspection, the provider has created a new well-equipped training and education centre for staff to update their knowledge and skills.

People using the service and those who worked with and for the provider were all complimentary about the way the managers now ran the service, and how accessible and approachable they were. The quality and safety of the service people received was routinely monitored by the managers who recognised the importance of learning lessons when things went wrong.

People were protected against the risk of avoidable harm by staff who knew how to keep them safe. The fitness and suitability of staff to work in adult social care had been thoroughly assessed as part of the providers comprehensive checks on prospective new recruits. Medicines systems were well-organised, and people received their prescribed medicines as and when they should.

Assessments of people’s support needs and wishes were conducted before they were provided with a home care service and involved all the relevant stakeholders. 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. Where staff were responsible for assisting people to eat and drink, their dietary needs and wishes were assessed and met. People were supported to stay healthy and well, and to access relevant community health and social care services as and when required.

People's care plans were person-centred, detailed, and kept up to date, which helped staff provide them with the individualised care at home they needed and wanted. The managers promoted an open and inclusive culture which sought the views of people receiving a care at home service, their relatives and staff who worked for the provider. People were confident any concerns they raised would be listened to and dealt with appropriately. Complaints, concerns, accidents, incidents, and safeguarding issues were appropriately reported, investigated, and recorded. The provider worked in close partnership with other external health and social care professionals and agencies to plan and deliver people’s packages of care.

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 26 May 2022) and there were breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We conducted an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 11 November 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve how they assessed and managed risks people might face, and ensure staff wore appropriate PPE as and when required, were well-trained and arrived on time for their scheduled call visits.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe, effective, and well-led which contain those requirements.

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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Stockwellcare Support Services 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. If we receive any concerning information, we may inspect sooner.