ICare Solutions Lancashire

Updated 12 September 2018

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

This inspection took place on 13 and 14 August 2018 and was announced. This inspection was conducted by one adult social care inspector. This was the first inspection for this service.

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is a domiciliary care agency and the registered manager and branch manager are often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

In preparation for the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service such as notifications, complaints and safeguarding information. We obtained the views of the local authority safeguarding and contract monitoring team and local commissioning teams. We also contacted Healthwatch to see if they had any feedback. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

The provider was asked to submit a Provider Information Return. This is information we ask providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. However, due to a change in registered manager it was not possible to ascertain if this had been completed or not. Our records showed we had not received this.

We reviewed a range of records about people’s care and the way the service was managed. These included the care records for three people, medicine administration records, staff training records, four staff recruitment files, staff supervision and appraisal records, minutes from meetings and records relating to the management of the service.

We also spoke with the registered manager, branch manager and two care staff. After discussions with the registered manager and branch manager it was agreed it was not suitable to visit people in their own homes. Therefore, on the 16 August 2018 we made phone calls to one person who used the service [who we could not manage to speak with] and one relative to get their feedback.

Updated 12 September 2018

This inspection took place on 13 and 14 August 2018 and was announced. This was the service first inspection.

ICare Solutions Lancashire is a domiciliary care agency, located in Darwen, Lancashire. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and those people who are at the end of their life. On the day of our inspection there were four people using the service.

The service was managed by a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons.' Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Safeguarding and whistleblowing policies and procedures were in place and were accessible to staff members. All the staff we spoke with were aware of their responsibilities to report any concerns.

Risk assessments were in place in relation to people’s health and well-being, to keep people safe. These were reviewed and updated regularly or when changes occurred. Risks had also been considered in the environment.

Recruitment systems and processes in place were robust. We saw references, identity checks and Disclosure and Barring Service checks were completed before staff were employed. Staff we spoke with told us there was enough staff on duty to meet the needs of people using the service and that the service were still recruiting. On the second day of our inspection we saw the branch manager was interviewing prospective new staff.

If it was part of the package of care, staff supported people with their medicines. The branch manager told us that at the time there was only one person who required support and this was in the form of a prompt. Staff had been trained in administering of medicines.

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

We have made a recommendation that the provider considers a robust induction programme for when people commence employment, in particular for those people without any previous experience of working in care.

Whilst we did not observe staff interactions with people, all of the staff we spoke with, including the branch manager, talked about people and their roles with sincerity, compassion and empathy.

Staff members we spoke with understood the importance of maintaining people’s privacy and dignity. They spoke of knocking on people’s doors, covering people up when providing personal care and ensuring curtains were closed.

We saw people had person centred support plans in place which they had been involved in. These were in-depth and covered many aspects of the person’s life. People had signed to confirm they were involved in this process.

We have made a recommendation that the service considers current best practice around end of life, such as enhanced training and care planning.

We looked at how the service managed complaints. The service had a complaints policy and procedure in place, which was accessible to staff and the branch manager confirmed they had not received any complaints.

Whilst we found the registered manager was knowledgeable about the corporate and organisational side of the service, they were not so knowledgeable about the running of the Darwen service. On a number of occasions throughout the inspection they did not know where to find things and had to rely on other people to find the information we requested.