Archived: Cera Birmingham South

Updated 29 January 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors. Inspection activity started on 09 November 2021 and ended on 12 November 2021. We visited the office location on 09 November 2021.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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 the service 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. 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 used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with eight people who used the service and ten relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eight members of staff including the area manager and registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included five people's care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 29 January 2022

About the service

Homecare4u South Birmingham is a community based care provider that provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection 38 people were receiving a service and all were in receipt of 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's support needs were assessed regularly and planned to ensure they received the support they needed.

Staff had received training in safeguarding and knew how to keep people safe. Staff had been recruited safely and were trained and supported to provide the best possible care for people. People told us their medication was administered safely. Staff were provided with sufficient amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE) to mitigate the risk of cross infection.

Staff had good knowledge of the risks associated with providing people's care and had received training relevant to people's needs. The provider sought feedback from people and their relatives about their care experience and any issues raised, were dealt with. The provider worked effectively with health and social care agencies. People and relatives knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint and felt confident they would be addressed.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 25 December 2019).

Why we inspected

We received specific concerns about the support people received and as a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.