Closer Than Close Home Care Limited

Updated 4 February 2017

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.

The inspection was carried out on 21 and 22 December 2016 and was announced. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection we reviewed relevant information that we had about the service.

During the inspection we spoke with three relatives, four people that used the service, the registered manager and three care staff. We looked at four care plans, which consisted of people receiving personal care in their own homes.

We reviewed four staff files and looked at documents linked to the day-to-day running of the agency including a range of policies and procedures on safeguarding, equality and diversity and supervisions.

Updated 4 February 2017

We carried out an inspection of Closer than Close Homecare Limited on 21 December 2016. This was an announced inspection where we gave the provider notice because we needed to ensure someone would be available to speak with us.

Closer than Close is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own home. At the time of our inspection, there were 17 people who received personal care from the agency.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

When a new recruit joined they spent two days shadowing a more experienced staff member before they started lone working. The service had introduced the care certificate and new staff were completing this. There had been some additional training within the past year for existing staff such as medication and dementia training but training was limited and relied on staff having training from previous employment.

Staff in the main enjoyed working at the service, but told us that there was currently a shortage of staff, which meant they felt pressured to cover visits. Safe recruitment process were followed.

People receiving a service from Closer than Close told us they felt safe. They said they had not had any missed calls, and when care workers were going to be late they usually received a message.

Staff received rotas each week and were notified of any changes. The service used an electronic call monitoring system where staff used a phone to notify the system of their arrival and departure. This provided some assurance that calls would not be missed. Travelling time was allocated between calls.

People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff understood how to keep people safe from abuse and how to raise concerns. Risks to people had been assessed and reviewed regularly to ensure people's individual needs were being met safely.

Medicines were recorded when the care workers were involved in administering them.

People received care from same regular care workers, and the registered manager tried to achieve this where possible.

.