CareOLine Carers Service

Updated 28 August 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

The service was given 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that a member of the management team would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started and ended on 25 June 2019 when we attended the service's office.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

The registered manager was not present. We spoke with the team manager, we looked at the person's care records and two staff files as well as records relating to quality assurance and management of the service.

After the inspection

We spoke with a relative and two staff members.

Updated 28 August 2019

About the service

CareOLine Carers Service is a domiciliary care agency which provides support to people in their own home. 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 there was one person receiving personal care.

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

Care was planned with the person and their relatives' input. Staff knew the person well and understood the support the person needed to stay safe and healthy. Staff liaised effectively with external health and social care professionals as well as the person's relative. This helped the person to receive individually tailored care which met their needs.

Staff were caring and friendly; they had built a good rapport with the person. Staff provided care and support in a way which maintained the person's independence, privacy and dignity. The person was treated with respect and involved in making decisions about their care.

The person was given the information they needed about their care in a way they could understand. The person had regular opportunities to give their views on what they did and did not like about the way their care and support was provided.

The person received a sufficient amount to eat and drink, and their meals reflected their food preferences. The person was supported to spend their time involved in enjoyable, age appropriate activities.

There were systems in place to make sure there was always enough staff working at the service to help keep the person safe and meet their needs. The person was protected from the risk of abuse and felt safe.

Appropriate checks were carried out on staff before they began to work with the person. The person was supported by staff who received relevant training, supervision and performance review which helped staff to provide effective and appropriate support.

The registered manager and staff understood the responsibilities of their role. There were systems in place to obtain the person’s views and receive and investigate complaints. There were appropriate systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of care the person received.

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 service was not rated at the last inspection because the service had only recently begun supporting one person and we were unable to obtain sufficient evidence to make a judgement. The last inspection report was published in September 2018. At this inspection the service was rated good.

Why we inspected

We inspected CareOLine Carers Service on 25 June 2019. This was a planned inspection based on our re-inspection programme.

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.