Sapphire Home Care Also known as Sapphire Home Care

Updated 20 April 2023

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out 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 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. The registered manager was also the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

Inspection activity started on 4 April 2023 and ended on 12 April 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we held about the service. Due to technical problems, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). 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.

During the inspection

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used phone calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.

We spoke to 7 people and 6 people’s relatives about the support provided. We spoke with 8 members of staff which included both directors, the support and development manager as well as care staff. We reviewed 4 people’s care plans and medication records as well as multiple documents relating to the quality assurance processes at the service.

Updated 20 April 2023

About the service

Sapphire Home Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 23 people. The service provides support to a range of people with different needs, including people living with dementia, people with physical disabilities and people with sensory impairments.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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

People were protected from the risk of abuse by staff that understood and followed safeguarding procedures. Staff knew people they supported well and understood how to manage risks to them. There were enough staff to support people safely and systems were effective to identify if there were any issues with staff timings. People were supported with their medicines safely and staff wore appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep people safe.

People and their relatives were positive about the kind and caring nature of staff and the management team. People told us staff supported them to be independent. The management team had effective quality assurance processes in place to monitor the support provided to people. People and their relatives were given regular opportunities to give feedback to the service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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 good (Published 2 August 2018).

Why we inspected

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

As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.

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