Shalom Care

Updated 31 May 2019

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:

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

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 visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. Inspection site visit activity started on 1 May 2019 and ended on 1 May 2019. We visited the office location on 1 May 2019 to see the manager and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we already held about this service. This included details of its registration and previous inspection reports. Due to technical problems, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually 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 contacted the host local authority to seek their views about the service.

During the inspection we reviewed the records of two people including their care plans and risk assessments. We examined various policies and procedures. We looked at staff recruitment and training records for two staff and we spoke with the registered manager.

After the inspection we spoke with one relative of a person who used the service and one member of staff by telephone. The registered manager sent us minutes of a staff team meeting.

Updated 31 May 2019

About the service:

Shalom Care provides support with personal care to people living in their own homes. Two people were using the service at the time of inspection.

The service stopped providing care to people in December 2017. They remained dormant until they re-commenced providing care on the 1 April 2019. Because they had only been operating for one month at the time of inspection we were not able to gather enough evidence to make a judgement about the Well-led question. This means we are unable to give this service an overall rating at this time.

People’s experience of using this service:

The service had systems in place to protect people from abuse and people told us they felt safe. Risk assessments were in place to help minimise risks people faced. Infection control measures were in operation and the service had procedures about the safe administration of medicines. There were enough staff employed to support people and checks were carried out on staff to verify they were suitable to work in the care sector.

Assessments of people’s needs were carried out prior to the provision of care to determine if the service was able to meet those needs. Staff undertook induction training on the commencement of their employment. The service worked in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Relatives told us staff were caring and respectful. Staff had a good understanding of how to support people in a way that promoted their privacy, dignity and independence. The service worked to meet people’s needs in relation to equality and diversity issues.

Care plans were in place which set out how to support people in a personalised manner. People had been involved in planning their care. People were supported to access community facilities in line with their preferences. There was a system in place for responding to complaints and people knew who they could complain to.

Relatives and staff spoke positively about the registered manager, saying they found them to be approachable and easily accessible.

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection of this service we were unable to give a rating due to lack of evidence. The last inspection report was published on 4 October 2016.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned comprehensive inspection.

Follow up:

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

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