ICare Coventry Ltd

Updated 2 October 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

One inspector and an expert by experience carried out the inspection. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service. The expert by experience supported the inspection by making phone calls to people who used the service.

Service and service type

ICare Coventry is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes, including, older people and people living with dementia. CQC regulates the personal care provided.

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. The registered manager was also the provider of the service.

Notice of inspection

This comprehensive inspection took place on 5 September 2019. The inspection was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours' notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure the manager and other staff would be available to speak with us.

Inspection activity started in August 2019 and ended on the 5 September 2019 when we visited the office location to meet with the managers, speak with staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did before the inspection

Prior to the inspection, we reviewed the information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from health and social care professionals that work with the service, this included an organisation that supported people who paid for their own care through direct payments. We reviewed 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. All this information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service and nine relatives by telephone to obtain their views of the service provided. We spoke with the registered manager, who is also the provider of the service, the branch manager, and three members of staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included, three people’s care records, including daily records, risk assessments and medicine records. Three staff personnel files, including recruitment and training records and the provider’s quality audits and checks.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, people’s call schedules and the provider’s website.

Updated 2 October 2019

About the service:

ICare Coventry is a domiciliary care agency. It is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes, including, older people, people with mental health needs, and people living with dementia. At the time of the inspection visit the service supported 40 people with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were happy with the service they received. People were visited by care staff they knew and who arrived around the time expected. There were enough staff to provide the care and support people required.

People and relatives felt safe with staff who visited them. Risks associated with people’s care were assessed and managed safely. There were safe procedures for recruitment of staff and to manage people’s medicines.

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. People’s needs were assessed to ensure they could be met by the service. Staff received training and support to be effective in their role. Where required, people were supported with their nutritional needs.

People described managers and staff as very kind and caring. Staff respected people’s rights to privacy and dignity and supported people to maintain independence. People felt involved in their care and made decisions about their care and support.

Care plans contained all the information staff needed to provide personalised care. Systems were in place to manage and respond to any complaints.

The provider understood their regulatory responsibilities. Managers and staff understood their roles and responsibilities and staff received good support from the managers. There were processes for regularly assessing and monitoring the quality of the service. This included obtaining people’s feedback which was used to make improvements to the service.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was Good (published on 1 April 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the date and the rating of the previous inspection.

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

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.