Gateway Care

Updated 12 March 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 was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 28 February 2020 and ended on 28 February 2020. We visited the office location on 28 February 2020.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since its registration. 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager, and the chief executive officer. We also went to the visit the person who used the service in their home spoke with and a health and social care professional.

We reviewed a range of records. This included one person’s care records, and quality assurance documents.

Updated 12 March 2020

About the service

Gateway Care is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care support to people with a learning disability, autism spectrum disorder, mental health, older people, physical disability, and younger adults. 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. Care was provided by the registered manager and at present they did not employ any staff.

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

At the time of inspection, the service only supported one person. We spoke with this person however they had limited communication and we spoke with a health and social care professional who also provided support to the person to better understand their experiences of the service.

The provider had identified risks to people who used the service and put in place guidance on how to reduce risks where these were identified.

Care records were personalised. People’s cultural and religious needs were respected when planning and delivering care. Discussions with the registered manager showed they respected people’s sexual orientation so that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people could feel accepted and welcomed in the service.

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.

At the time of our inspection the service did not have any people receiving end of life care. The service had an end of life policy in policy.

The provider had a complaints procedure in place and had effective quality assurance systems to monitor 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

We were unable to give a rating at the last inspection as there was insufficient information to enable us to make a judgment (published 30 August 2019).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.