ACS

Updated 19 September 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 carried out by 1 inspector and 2 Experts 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 homes.

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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 24 August 2023 and ended on 25 August 2023. We visited the location’s office on 24 August 2023. Experts by Experience made phone calls to people and their relatives on 24 August 2023 and 25 August 2023.

What we did before inspection

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

During the inspection

We spoke with 11 people and 10 relatives of people who received support for feedback on their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager who was also the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We spoke with the care manager, office manager, HR manager and office administrator. We spoke to and/or received email feedback from 7 care staff and the training manager. We received feedback from 3 health professionals.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 6 people’s care and multiple medicine records. We looked at 4 files in relation to staff recruitment and support. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 19 September 2023

About the service

ACS is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults in their own homes. 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. At the time of our inspection 66 people were receiving support with personal care.

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

People received safe care and support in their homes. Staff were trained in safeguarding and there were effective processes in place to report abuse if required. Risk assessments and care plans included information about known risks to people care such as falls, frailty and skin integrity so staff had sufficient information to provide safe care.

Safe recruitment practices were followed to ensure staff were suitable for their roles. Staff were usually reliable and arrived at people’s homes within a window of time. Staff completed all tasks required to support people as per their agreed care plans, and people were usually supported by regular staff.

People were supported safely with their medicines. Staff used personal protective equipment (PPE) when supporting people with personal care in accordance with good infection prevention and control practices.

Accidents and incidents were recorded and followed up appropriately. Lessons were learned when things went wrong, and measures put in place to reduce the risk of the same thing happening again.

People’s capacity to make decisions was assessed under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Staff knew how to support people make choices about their daily care. 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.

An open and positive culture was embedded in the service. People, relatives and staff spoke positively about the approach and availability of the registered manager and the management team.

The registered manager and management team had effective oversight of people’s care, facilitated by effective staff handovers and communication. The registered manager had identified some areas where quality assurance processes could be strengthened and had already started to take action to improve these systems.

People and their representatives were involved in people's care and had opportunities to provide feedback. Feedback was acted upon when areas for improvement were identified.

Staff were supported through supervisions including one to ones and practice observations in people’s homes. Positive feedback was received about good teamwork amongst staff which benefited everyone using the service.

The staff team worked in partnership with health and social care professionals involved in people's care and treatment, to support people achieve good outcomes. Feedback from healthcare professionals was extremely positive.

The registered manager was aware of their legal responsibilities and worked in an open and transparent way.

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 7 October 2017).

Why we inspected

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

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

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