Your Life (Crowthorne)

Updated 21 July 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

Two inspectors carried out this inspection. An Expert by Experience carried out telephone calls to people who use the service or their relatives to gather feedback. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Third inspector carried out telephone calls to gather feedback from staff working at the service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own flats within a large complex of retirement flats. The service provides both social support and personal care to people living within the complex. The accommodation is bought or rented and is the occupant’s own home. CQC does not regulate premises and this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to ensure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 23 May 2022 and ended on 24 May 2022. We visited the service on 23 May 2022.

What we did before the inspection

Prior to the inspection we looked at all the information we had collected since the last inspection about the service including previous inspection reports and notifications the registered manager had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke to the manager and regional director during the inspection visit. We reviewed a range of records relating to the management of the service, for example, records of medicine management, risk assessments, accidents and incidents; quality assurance system; training information. We looked at three people's care and support plan and associated records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed. We spoke to three relatives of people who use the service and seven staff working at the service.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered person to validate evidence found. We looked at further records and evidence including quality assurance checks and records, incidents and accidents, training data, and policies and procedures. We contacted five professionals working with the service and received one response.

Updated 21 July 2022

About the service

Your Life (Crowthorne) is a home care service that provides social and personal care provision to people living in their own flats within a large complex of retirement apartments. At the time of our inspection there were three people receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

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.

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

People were protected from the risks of abuse and relatives felt reassured with the staff providing their support and care. The registered manager had the knowledge to identify safeguarding concerns and would deal with them appropriately. The staff showed understanding and awareness of safeguarding issues and when to report those. Risks to people's personal safety had been assessed and plans were in place to minimise those risks. Staff recruitment and staffing levels supported people to stay safe while living as independent a life as possible.

The registered manager scheduled visits so it would not overlap with each other, and that way, staff could maintain continuity of care and support. People received appropriate support with medicine as part of their plan of care and medicine was managed safely.

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; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People received effective care and support from staff who knew them well and were well trained. The staff monitored people's health and wellbeing and took appropriate action when required to address concerns. People's rights to make their own decisions were protected. People were treated with care, respect, kindness and their dignity was upheld. People and relatives were consulted about their care and support and could change how things were done if they wanted to. The registered manager and staff worked well together for the benefit of people and were focused on the needs of the people using the service.

People benefitted from staff who were happy in their work and felt well managed and supported. The registered manager encouraged feedback from people and families, which they would use to make improvements to the service and protect people against the risks of receiving unsafe and inappropriate care and treatment.

The registered manager had oversight in the monitoring of the running of the service, the quality of the service being delivered and took actions promptly to address any issues. The registered manager praised the staff team for their hard work and appreciated their contribution to ensure people received the best care and support.

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 30 September 2019). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We inspected the service based on the previous rating. This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 19 August 2019. 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 good governance, notifying of management changes and safety incidents.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. 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 Your Life (Crowthorne) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.