Background to this inspection
Updated
5 June 2021
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.
This was a focused inspection, prompted in part following information of concern we received relating to the provider’s safety measures to protect people from the risk of COVID-19 when they received care from staff.
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 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 a short period of notice to the provider. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection and to give them time to speak with people and relatives for us to seek their views about the service.
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 sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan or inspection.
During the inspection
This inspection began on the 25 March and ended on 7 April 2021. We visited the provider office on 25 March where we reviewed six people’s care and medicines records; six staff recruitment, training and supervision records and complaints records from the last 12 months. We also spoke with the registered manager and office manager.
On the 1, 6 and 7 April 2021 we spoke by telephone with five people who used the service and four relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eight members of care staff including four health care assistants, a care supervisor, a team leader. We also reviewed a range of documents we asked the provider to send us relating to the safety and management of people’s care. This included some of the providers operational care policies; service monitoring and care quality survey results.
Updated
5 June 2021
About the service
Independent Care Link is a domiciliary care service providing care to people living in their own homes. This includes younger and older adults living with a range of general or mental health conditions, which may include dementia and any related physical disability or sensory impairment.
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 this inspection, a total of 78 out of 93 people received personal care from the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were protected from avoidable harm or injury within the service. The provider’s staffing, risk management, medicines and safeguarding arrangements for people’s care, helped to ensure people’s safety when they received care from staff at the service.
Recognised hygiene measures were assured for the prevention and control of any acquired health infection.
Health incidents and any near misses were routinely monitored and analysed, to help inform or improve peoples’ care and prevent any further reoccurrence when needed.
The service was well managed and led. Regulatory requirements were being met. The registered manager and staff understood their role and responsibilities for people’s care.
The provider operated effective governance arrangements, to ensure the quality and safety of people’s care and continuous service improvement. Display of their most recent inspection rating was ensured for public access.
There was an open and equitable culture at within the service. People, relatives and staffs’ views were regularly sought, to help inform service planning and any related care or staffing improvements needed.
Effective communication, record-keeping and information handling measures were established for people’s care. The provider regularly sought to engage and worked in partnership with relevant social, health and educational parties, to effectively inform people’s care
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 24 October 2018).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to infection control. 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
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the Safe and Well Led sections of this full report.
The overall rating for the service remains 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 Independent Care Link on our website at www.cqc.org.uk