Cherry Care Services Oxfordshire Ltd

Updated 20 November 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team:

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type:

Cherry Care Services Oxfordshire Ltd are a domiciliary care agency (DCA). The service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. There was a registered manager. 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’. 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 and took place on 5 November 2019. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure the management team would be in the office.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed the information, we held about the service and the service provider. The registered provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law. One day before the office visit we contacted 5 people and 1 relative to obtain their feedback.

During the inspection:

We looked at records, which included two people’s care and samples of medicines records. We checked recruitment, training and supervision records for two staff. We looked at a range of records about how the service was managed. We also spoke with the registered manager, two co-ordinators and one carer.

After the inspection

We contacted five external health professionals to gather their views about the service.

Updated 20 November 2019

About the service:

Cherry Care Services Oxfordshire Ltd, referred to as Cherry Care in this report, is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. The service operates in Witney and surrounding areas. Cherry Care provides personal care to younger adults and older people including people living with life limiting conditions. On the day of the inspection 23 people received regulated activity. More people were supported with non-regulated support, such as companionship or housekeeping.

People’s experience of using this service:

People received support that met their needs. People’s care plans described care people required in details and staff knew people’s needs well. Staff encouraged people to maintain social relationships. People knew how to make a complaint and the concerns received by the service were dealt with appropriately. People’s end of life wishes were known to staff and people were confident these would be respected. Cherry Care staff worked with other professionals, such as the local hospice to ensure people they supported had dignified and pain free death.

People told us staff were ‘brilliant’. The service remained caring and people received compassionate support. Staff treated people with dignity and respect and people were supported to remain independent. The provider ensured people’s confidentiality was maintained.

People continued to receive support with accessing health care services. External professionals were complimentary about the service. People were supported to have choice and control of their lives and staff respected their rights to make their own decisions. People were encouraged to meet their nutritional needs.

The service continued to provide safe support to people. The provider ensured people were supported by a sufficiently skilled and safely recruited staff. Risks to people's well-being that included their individual conditions and environment had been assessed and recorded. Medicines were managed in line with good practice and people received their medicines as prescribed.

The service remained well-led by the registered manager who was also the director. People praised the ‘personal touch’ provided by the management team and complimented the continuity of care they had. The team demonstrated an open and transparent approach. People’s views were sought and acted on. Staff were well supported and valued. The provider monitored the quality of service and planned how to implement further developments. Cherry Care worked well with external social and care professionals.

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

Rating at last inspection:

Good (report published 1 March 2017).

Why we inspected:

This was our scheduled, planned inspection based on previous rating.

Follow up:

We will monitor all intelligence received about the service to inform the assessment of the risk profile of the service and to ensure the next planned inspection is scheduled accordingly.

More information is in detailed findings below.