Bridgewater Home Care

Updated 10 January 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. 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:

Bridgewater Home Care is a ‘domiciliary care service’ It provides personal care to people living in their own homes and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the 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 carried out this inspection on 19 and 22 August 2019. At the time of the inspection there were approximately 54 people using the service.

The inspection was announced on 16 August 2019 to ensure the inspection could be facilitated by the registered manager at the location office. We informed the registered manager we would be returning for a second day to complete the inspection.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information and evidence we already held about this service, which had been collected via our ongoing monitoring of care services. This included notifications sent to us by the service. Notifications are changes, events or incidents that the provider is legally obliged to send to us without delay.

We also viewed the provider information return (PIR). 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.

We contacted Wigan local authority for feedback and other stakeholders who had involvement with the service.

The first of day of the inspection was spent at the main office, reviewing documentation and speaking with staff. The second day was also spent at the main office. We also carried out several home visits to speak with people who used the service and their relatives about the care provided by Bridgewater Home Care.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, eight care staff, six people who used the service and 10 relatives. This was to seek their feedback about what it was like to receive care from and work for Bridgewater Home Care.

Documentation reviewed included five care plans, five staff personnel files, five medicine administration records (MARs) and other records about the management of the service to help inform our inspection judgements.

Updated 10 January 2020

About the service:

Bridgewater Home Care is a domiciliary care service based in Wigan and provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. The services are operated by Bridgewater Home Care Ltd. At the time of the inspection approximately 50 people were using the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

The feedback we received about the standard of care provided was extremely positive. We saw many examples of where staff had gone ‘above and beyond’ what was expected from their roles.

Community links and partnership working with other organisations was excellent. The registered manager and staff team were committed to achieving positive outcome for people. Staff morale and a positive culture was also very important.

The career development of staff was encouraged and several different opportunities were created to enable staff to progress into different roles. The service had won a number of awards both nationally and in the local area, where their contribution to the care sector had been recognised.

People said they felt safe using the service, with staff demonstrating a good understanding about how to protect people from the risk of harm.

People received their medicines safely. Staff were recruited safely, with appropriate checks carried out to ensure risks were minimised. There were enough staff to care for people safely. People told us staff were prompt when arriving to deliver their care. Accidents and incidents were monitored, and any actions taken to prevent future re-occurrence were recorded.

People received the support they needed to eat and drink. 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.

People said they felt treated with dignity and respect and staff promoted their independence as required. Complaints were handled appropriately. Compliments were also recorded about the quality of service provided. Audits and quality assurance systems were in place to monitor the quality of service.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

This service was registered with us on 14 August 2018.and this was the first inspection we had undertaken.

Why we inspected:

This was a routine comprehensive inspection and in line with our timescales for newly registered services.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor information and intelligence we receive about the service to ensure good quality care is provided to people. We will return to re-inspect in line with our inspection timescales for Good rated services, however if any information of concern is received, we may inspect sooner.