Same Ways Care Limited

Updated 7 October 2020

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 activity was completed by one inspector and an Expert 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 houses and flats and specialist housing.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because we needed to visit the office location and due to COVID-19 we wanted to be sure the registered manager would be at the office. Inspection activity started on 4 September 2020 and ended on 10 September 2020. We visited the office location on 10 September 2020.

What we did before the inspection

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 reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We spoke with the provider and requested a range of documentation relating to the management of the service. We looked at five people’s care and medicine records. The ExE spoke with seven people who use the service and four relatives by telephone. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the provider, the registered manager and a senior carer. An inspector telephoned three care staff to seek their feedback. We looked at one staff file in relation to recruitment and staff supervision.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 7 October 2020

About the service

Same Ways Care Limited is a domiciliary care service. It is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. 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, 14 people were receiving personal care from the service.

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

People who used the service told us they felt safe. They told us staff treated them well and they knew who the registered manager was. People's relatives told us they were happy with the service. Safeguarding notifications to the relevant bodies had been made where required and appropriate action taken.

Medicines were administered safely in line with prescribed needs.

We have made a recommendation about the supply and ordering of medicines in the community.

There were suitable numbers of appropriately recruited staff available to ensure people were supported safely in line with their assessed support needs and risks.

The provider and management team had made improvements since the previous inspection and continued to learn to improve the service further. The management team were eager to learn and share good practice and this helped people to make good progress. Systems were in place to audit the care provided and to seek feedback from people involved with 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 10 September 2019) and two breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve the regulations of safe care and treatment and good governance.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements in relation to Regulations 12 and 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. The key question Responsive also had a breach but we ensured this was met by reviewing the Well Led section of the inspection.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Same Ways Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.