Eclipse Care (Southwest) Ltd

Eclipse Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults based in the Bideford, Holsworthy and Okehampton areas of North Devon. The service has packages of care in extremely rural areas which other providers may not be able to cover. Care visit times ranged from 30 minutes to two hours. Frequency of visits ranged from once a day to four times a day. The service did not undertake care visits lasting 15 minutes. At the time of our visit, the service provided 300 care hours a week.

Not everyone using Eclipse Care receives the 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 take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection, the service provided personal care to 16 people and employed 12 staff, along with the nominated individual and registered manager.

‘A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.’

People, relatives and care professionals described the service in outstanding terms. They were all unanimously complimentary about how the service was led and that everyone worked together to achieve the best outcomes for people. Two relatives said, “I am firmly convinced that Eclipse are the best care company in the area by far” and “I am really, really pleased we have this company and I can’t praise them enough”.

The service was exceptionally caring, kind and compassionate to the people it supported. People received personalised care suitable to their individual needs. Care staff were highly motivated, passionate and proud of their jobs. They regularly went the extra mile for people as part of their normal working roles. The providers also cared for the staff who worked for them.

People unanimously told us staff respected them and delivered care in a way they wanted. People were matched with staff who had similar interests. Positive and trusting relationships had been built up and people were treated like extended family members. People were extremely complimentary of the staff and how well they were cared for. Staff were encouraged to spend quality time with people and get to know them.

People were treated with extreme dignity and privacy, with people encouraged to do as much for themselves as they were able. The providers acted as advocates to ensure people received the support they were entitled to.

The service was extremely responsive to people’s changing needs and the service was truly led around those people’s needs. The providers supported staff out of hours and regularly went out to support staff in the community.

The providers led a service with an open, positive and inclusive culture. They were passionate, motivated and purposeful. They kept in close contact with each of the people they supported and knew them and their families well. People, relatives and care professionals all gave excellent feedback about how the service was managed and that nothing was too much trouble for the providers. One relative said, “They (providers) are brilliant and have no faults”.

Staff were safely recruited, well trained and supervised in their work. Staff were flexible to meet people’s needs. Staff felt valued, supported and included. They could approach the providers at any time and knew they would be listened to. The providers recognised when their staff ‘went the extra mile’ and were recognised and thanked for their work. One care worker said, “What an amazing company … it’s a pleasure coming to work.”

Staff encouraged people to develop community links and this was given as much importance as meeting personal care needs. The providers recognised the importance of ‘social prescribing’ and there were success stories of where people had found new interests in the community.

People were supported to eat a balanced diet, take their medicines and see health care professionals when needed. They were supported by staff who had a good understanding of what constituted abuse and how to report it if they had concerns. People’s rights were protected because the service following the appropriate legal processes. People’s risks were assessed to keep them safe.

The providers led the service in line with their vision and values which were also reflected by the staff group. They were role models for the staff team and well respected by them. The service worked closely with other health and social care professionals for the benefit of the people they looked after. Care professionals gave very good feedback about the service and how they valued the input from the service, particularly with people’s changing needs. Two professionals said, “Eclipse are excellent and a pleasure to work with” and “I really value the work they do to support and care for our community.”

The providers had systems in place which gave them an oversight of the service at all times. These were embedded in the service to monitor the quality and safety of the service. They strived to make continuous improvements in the way care was delivered. There were processes in place for people and relatives to raise issues or concerns and these were fully investigated. We received no complaints about the service, only compliments from everyone we spoke with. One relative said, “I would recommend them to anyone who needed care.”

Where incidents and accidents occurred, the providers looked upon these positively as a learning curve and systems reviewed to prevent a reoccurrence.