Clear Thinking Care Ltd

Updated 24 December 2022

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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector and one assistant inspector.

Service and service type

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

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

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records, this included five people's care records and Medication Administration Records (MAR). We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, we also spoke with the registered manager and four care staff.

Updated 24 December 2022

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Clear Thinking Care Ltd is a is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people with specific health needs, learning disabilities and/ or Autism living in their own houses and flats. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 15 people.

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

Right Support: The model of care at Clear Thinking Care Ltd maximised people's choice, control and independence. Staff were committed to supporting people in line with their preferences and

supported people to receive their medicines safely and as prescribed. People were enabled to access health and social care support in the community.

Right Care: Risks associated with people's care were assessed and included in their support plans. Care records guided staff on the action they were to take to mitigate risks to people and themselves.

Right Culture: The registered manager and staff were clear about their aim of providing person-centred care. They had a good knowledge of the service and understood the needs of people they supported. Staff supported people to lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.

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 requires improvement (published 5 October 2022) 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

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 27 July 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve processes to safeguard people and governance arrangements.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

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 changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Clear Thinking Care 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.