Bella Home Care

Updated 25 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by 2 inspectors and an Expert by Experience. One inspector visited the offices and another inspector worked off site making telephone calls to staff. An Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people and their relatives. 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. CQC does not regulate premises used for domiciliary care; this inspection looked at people's personal care and support.

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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection visit was announced.

We gave short notice of our inspection visit to the registered manager. This was to ensure they would be available on site to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 January 2023 and ended on 20 January 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed the information we held, such as people and relatives’ feedback and statutory notifications, as well as any information shared with us by the local authority, commissioners and the local government ombudsman. 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people who received a service to get their experiences about the quality of care received. We also spoke with 7 relatives. We spoke with 7 members of care staff that included 3 office staff who supported the registered manager with audits, checks, care call scheduling, care assessments and care planning. The 3 office staff on occasions, supported people with personal care. We spoke with the Nominated Individual and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included examples of 3 people’s care records and samples of medicine records and associated records of their care. We looked at records that related to the management and quality assurance of the service and risk management. We reviewed 2 staff recruitment files.

Updated 25 February 2023

About the service

Bella Home Care is a is a community-based care provider that provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection there were 67 people in receipt of the regulated activity of personal care.

Everyone who received support at the time of our inspection 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

At our last inspection, we found some improvements were required as some people's health risks were not always reviewed and some people's care records not always updated. Quality assurance systems were not operated effectively to identify, where the service required improvement. We identified a breach of the regulations.

Following the last inspection, we formally requested the provider sent us a monthly action plan telling us what they had improved and where improvements continued to be made at the service, with timescales. At this inspection, we found the action plan had driven some improvements and some risks associated with people’s care were managed safely. Audits and checks had been improved which meant the provider was no longer in breach.

People were pleased with the service they received. People received their care calls at their agreed time slots and on occasions when staff were running late, people were notified.

People and relatives confirmed they received their care and support from a regular staff team who knew them well. People’s feedback showed they valued the support they received.

There were sufficient staff employed to undertake care calls to people and to ensure people received support from the same staff team. Staff told us they were not rushed.

Staff were recruited in a safe way. Staff were trained to support people, so they had the knowledge and confidence to meet people’s individual needs. Staff knew how to care for people in a safe way because risks had been assessed and were known by staff. Staff told us they regularly supported the same people, so they knew them well.

Staff recognised the signs of abuse or poor practice. Staff knew how to report any concerns they might have. The registered manager knew what to do and was confident to tackle poor practice. Where incidents had occurred, we were notified.

People received their medicines as prescribed. People had individual plans of care and staff provided personalised care and support.

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.

Since our last inspection, the owner had unexpectedly passed away. The business was currently in a transitional phase. Some improvements the new registered manager wanted to make were unable to be implemented at the present time.

The registered manager’s audit systems had been strengthened and increased, yet some checks were not always as up to date as they wanted. Some minor issues we found at this visit had not yet been identified through their own audits. The registered manager was committed to driving those changes and had plans to continuously improve.

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 25 December 2021). Following this visit, the provider sent us an action plan telling us how they would improve. At this visit we found sufficient improvement and the provider was no longer in breach of the regulations.

Why we inspected

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 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 Bella 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.