Archived: Patience Company

Updated 3 January 2019

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

The inspection took place on 30 November and 3 December 2018 and was announced. We gave the service five days notice of the inspection site visit. This was because we needed to make sure the registered manager and staff were available to speak to us.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information, what it does well and improvements they plan to make.

We also reviewed other information we held about the scheme. We looked at notifications received. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us by law.

During the inspection we spoke with two managers of other services that the agency supplied staff for and eight staff. We also spoke with the registered manager who is also the provider.

Updated 3 January 2019

This comprehensive inspection took place on 30 November and the 5 December 2018 and was announced. This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered with us.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting seven people in the City of Bristol. The service has not yet built up a client base of its own . Although that it what it is currently proactively aiming to do. Until then the service currently only provides staff to other agency's. Our feedback was taken from the registered managers of the agency’s concerned.

Not everyone using Patience Company receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care', help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

Care and support was being well planned and staff supported people in sufficient numbers to meet their needs and keep them safe. People were supported to take and manage their medicines safely.

Staff were being trained and had their skills regularly checked. Staff had the competency and understanding to ensure people received the care and support they required. Staff knew how to provide this in the way people wished to be supported. Staff were positive about the support and training they were offered. Staff had a caring approach to their work and understood the values of the organisation they worked for.

People were supported to maintain good physical health and wellbeing. People were assisted to access health care services when they needed them. People were asked for their consent before any care and were encouraged to make decisions and choices in their daily life.

People had their own detailed care plans in place; a copy was kept in the person's home. The care plans provided useful guidance about each person's care needs and were updated regularly to make sure they were accurate and up to date. The people we spoke with also said an initial assessment was completed when they first started using the service. This enabled staff to be clear about the level of care people needed.

People were sent satisfaction questionnaires to find out their views of the service. This enabled the service to continually improve based on feedback from people and anything that could be changed. There was a range of quality monitoring processes in place. These were to monitor and improve the service.

Staff told us the management was approachable, responsive and listened to any ideas for areas for improvement.