Eternity Healthcare Limited

Updated 24 July 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

We carried out the inspection of the agency office on15 May 2018 and this inspection was announced. This meant we gave the registered provider 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure the registered manager, some staff and some people who received support would be available to meet and speak with us. We also spent time talking with people who used the service, their relatives and staff on the 14 June 2018.

The inspection team consisted of an adult social care inspector and one adult social care assistant inspector.

Prior to the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service, which included correspondence we had received, and any notifications submitted to us by the service. A notification must be sent to the Care Quality Commission every time a significant incident has taken place. For example, where a person who uses the service suffers a serious injury. We considered this when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

Prior to the inspection we contacted Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. They told us they had no current feedback about the service.

During this inspection, we spoke with two people who used the service and the relatives of one person by telephone to seek their views about the service provided. In addition, we spoke with three care staff over the telephone, the director, the registered manager and the administration worker. We looked in detail at the care records for four people, medicine administration records, three staff recruitment and training files, policies and procedures and quality assurance audits.

Updated 24 July 2018

This inspection of Eternity Healthcare Limited took place on 15 May 2018. This was the first inspection of the service and was announced. This meant the registered provider was given 48 hours' notice of our inspection visit. This was because the location provides a small domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be available to meet with us.

Eternity Healthcare Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to adults with learning disabilities, physical disability, mental health needs, drug and alcohol addiction and older people in their own homes and community. The service operates seven days a week and care packages can vary depending on the individual needs of people. Services provided include assistance with personal care, help with domestic tasks, meal preparation and medicines administration and monitoring .

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; which is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. At the time of the inspection Eternity Healthcare Limited were supporting nineteen people with the regulated activity.

There was a manager at the service who was registered with CQC. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

There were systems in place to protect people from harm, including how medicines were managed. Staff were trained in how to recognise and respond to abuse and understood their responsibility to report any concerns to the management team.

Safe recruitment processes were followed, and appropriate checks had been undertaken, which made sure only suitable staff were employed to care for people.

There were appropriate numbers of staff employed to meet people’s needs and provide a flexible service.

People were supported in a kind, caring way that took account of their individual needs and preferences.

People were supported to have choice and control of their lives and staff supported people in the least restrictive way possible: the policies and systems supported this practice.

Staff were supported to provide appropriate care to people because they received training, supervisions and appraised. There was an induction, and training and development programme, which supported staff to gain relevant knowledge and skills.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The registered provider’s policies and systems supported this practice. People had consented to receiving care and support from Eternity Healthcare Limited.

People were supported to maintain their health by being supported to access a range of health care professionals.

People were able to raise any concerns they may have had. We saw the service user guide included ‘how to make a complaint’.

We found a system was in place to monitor service delivery. However, we found some aspects of the quality assurance system needed improving.

The registered manager had plans to improve the delivery of the service but further systems needed to be formalised and embedded to evidence continuous improvement of the service provided.