Facilitate Care Services

Updated 17 July 2021

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 two inspectors and two Expert by Experience. One inspector completed the visit to the office and a further inspector made telephone calls to staff. Two Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people and relatives who used the service. 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

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

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 announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to be sure the provider or registered manager would be available to support the inspection.

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. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 10 people who used the service and eight relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eight members of staff, including the nominated individual, registered manager, care workers and office support staff. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care and medication records and three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

Updated 17 July 2021

About the service

Facilitate Care is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service supported 153 people with personal care.

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.

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

People told us the care they received met their needs. They felt safe with the staff that supported them and described the care provided by staff as good.

People and their relatives were involved in planning and reviews of their care although face to face reviews had not routinely taken place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. People were supported by a consistent group of staff which meant staff knew people well. Basic risk management information was included in people's plans of care. Staff had completed some training in relation to the specialist care needs of people they supported. Where there were gaps in specialist training, records did not always support staff with guidance on how to respond to people’s needs. Audit systems were not fully effective in identifying gaps in records. However, the lack of clear records had not impacted on people’s care.

People were happy in relation to how they were supported with medicines and staff told us they knew how to administer medicines safely. Medicine records however, needed improvement to clearly show how medicines were managed.

Staff felt valued and supported by the management team and spoke positively of working for the service. Staff were recruited in a safe way and there was regular management contact with staff to identify any support needs they may have such as training. Staff had received training on how to protect people from the risk of abuse and understood the importance of reporting concerns. The provider understood their legal responsibilities in acting on and in reporting any such incidents. Staff followed the provider’s infection control policies and had access to the personal protective equipment they needed to help prevent the risk of the spread of infection.

There were systems in place for people to give their feedback on the service. The provider had identified some areas where improvements were needed.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published 10 May 2019).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns we had received in relation to lack of staff knowledge and safe care practice in regards to people’s specialist care needs. We also received concerns regarding gaps in care records making it difficult for staff to know if care had been delivered safely. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

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 Facilitate Care Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.