SW Homecare Agency

Updated 15 February 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.

Inspection team

Our inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

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 also used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 19 October 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

During the inspection

We spoke to the registered manager and two care workers. We reviewed a range of records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures. We also looked at the recruitment records for two staff and the care plans for one person. We spoke with one person who used the service and their relative.

Updated 15 February 2023

About the service

SW Homecare Agency is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to older people, people with physical disabilities, people with dementia and younger adults. At the time of our inspection there was one person using the service.

The Care Quality Commission (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.

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

Since the last inspection the provider looked at the areas of concern and implemented an action plan. There were significant improvements in the way the service managed the risks to people, learnt from their mistakes, assessed the quality of the service and involved people in their care. There were systems in place to protect people from the risk of abuse. Staff understood safeguarding procedures and were aware of how to raise a concern. Risks to people were regularly assessed and appropriate measures were in place to minimise risk. Staff were recruited safely and there were enough staff to meet the needs of people using the service.

People and their relatives had confidence in the ability of the staff to provide effective care. Staff development was supported through an induction when they started work. Ongoing training was provided to the staff team to ensure their skills and knowledge remained up to date.

Staff were kind and caring. We received positive feedback from people using the service and their relatives. People had access to external healthcare professionals and services as part of their planned care.

People and relatives were involved in their care plans to ensure they reflected people's preferences, religious and cultural beliefs and values. People knew how to make a complaint and feedback on the service was encouraged.

The registered manager had processes in place to monitor and review the quality of the service, for example, audits of care records. Feedback was sought from people using the service and relatives and were used to drive forward improvements and learn lessons.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 10 June 2019) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for SW Homecare Ltd 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.