42 Alexandra Road

Updated 5 July 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

The inspection was completed by an inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

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 service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. The registered manager is also the provider for this service.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service short notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 12 June 2023 and ended on 20 June 2023. We visited the location's office on 12 June 2023.

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 sought feedback from professionals involved with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection. We sought feedback from commissioners of the service.

During the inspection

We spoke with 1 person and 5 relatives about the care provided. We also spoke with the registered manager and 6 members of staff. We reviewed the risk assessments for 4 people and their medicine records. We reviewed 3 staff recruitment records and records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 5 July 2023

About the service

42 Alexandra Road is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people through either live-in or domiciliary care. The service provides support to both younger and older adults, who may have a disability, mental health needs, a learning disability or be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 8 people using the service.

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.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not provide care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

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

People and their relatives were satisfied overall with the care provided. They were happy with the care staff.

People were protected from the risk of abuse as staff had received relevant safeguarding training and understood what to report, to whom and how. Staff assessed and managed potential risks to people. They understood the importance of reporting incidents which were then reviewed. The registered manager operated safe staff recruitment processes and there were enough staff . Processes were in place to ensure people received their medicines safely from trained and competent staff. People were protected from the risk of getting an infection.

The registered manager understood their role and had worked to improve communications with both people and staff. Overall people told us improvements had been made, but this was still being worked on. The registered manager was working with staff to promote a person centred focus from staff, to improve people’s experience. People’s views on the care provided were sought by the registered manager and used to make improvements. Processes were in place to monitor the quality of the service provided.

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 03 February 2023).

Why we inspected

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

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for 42 Alexandra Road 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.