Comfort Call Durham

Updated 4 July 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.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 2 Experts 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

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

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 to request information about the service, people and relatives and to make sure the provider or registered manager would be available to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 March 2023 and ended on 20 April 2023, which included reviewing evidence sent electronically and speaking with people, relatives and staff.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we held about 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 sought feedback from the local authority contracts monitoring and safeguarding adults' teams and reviewed the information they provided. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 14 people and 18 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the regional manager, the registered manager and a care co-ordinator. We sent surveys to 20 staff members and received 3 responses.

We reviewed a range of records including 3 people’s care records and medicines records. We looked at recruitment records for 2 members of staff. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, were also reviewed.

Updated 4 July 2023

About the service

Comfort Call Durham is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. Not 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. At the time of inspection 161 people were receiving personal care.

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

People and relatives were happy with the service and the care people received. They were complimentary about staff calling them “caring” , “gold standard” and “outstanding.” Comments included, “I can’t really think of anything (that requires improvement). I am very satisfied and content with the staff” and, “I have such confidence in (the provider and staff) that it gives me complete peace of mind. The carers really lift [family member’s] spirits.”

There were systems in place to keep people safe. Staff safeguarded people from abuse. Risks to people’s health, safety and well-being were managed. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and safe recruitment processes were followed. Medicines were safely administered and managed. The provider learned from previous accidents and incidents to reduce future risks. The provider and staff protected people from the risk or spread of infection.

The service was well managed. The provider, registered manager and staff promoted a positive culture in the service. People and relatives were complimentary about staff and the care people received. The provider had an effective quality assurance process in place which included regular audits and spot checks. People, relatives and staff were regularly consulted about the quality of the service through regular communication, surveys, meetings and reviews.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.

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 good (published 11 October 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. As a result, we decided to undertake a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

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 remained good based on the findings of this inspection. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm. Please see the Safe and Well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Comfort Call Durham 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.