Background to this inspection
Updated
7 December 2019
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 one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
The provider is an individual who is in day to day charge of the service. They are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced.
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 6 November 2019 and ended on 12 November. We visited the office location on 6 November.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included reports the provider was required to send us each month setting out the improvements they were making.
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with eight people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine members of staff including the provider, management team and six care staff.
We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and multiple medicine records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and an overview of training and supervision for all staff. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed.
Updated
7 December 2019
About the service
Safe Care provides personal care to people who live 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 the inspection 26 people were receiving personal care support.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were happy with the care they received from Safe Care and said they felt safe. Staff knew what to do to keep people safe and were confident any concerns would be taken seriously.
Risks to people’s well-being and safety were assessed, recorded and kept up to date. Staff supported people to manage these risks effectively. People received support to take their medicines safely.
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.
People were supported to develop care plans that were specific to them. These plans were regularly reviewed with people, to ensure they were up to date. The plans contained clear information about people's communication needs.
Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity.
People were supported to prepare food and drinks where needed, ensuring this met people’s needs and minimised identified risks. Staff worked with health teams to ensure people were able to access the services they needed. Staff had clear information about when to contact health professionals to safely manage people’s health conditions.
The management team provided good support for staff to be able to do their job effectively. The provider’s quality assurance processes were effective and resulted in improvements to the service.
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 22 December 2018) and there were breaches of regulations. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.