Be Caring Manchester

Updated 23 May 2023

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

One inspector visited the service’s offices and telephoned members of care staff. An Expert by Experience telephoned people supported by the service and some relatives to gain their feedback about their care. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. An experienced interim manager from the provider’s head office had been in post for 3 months. A new manager had been appointed who would apply to be registered with the CQC. A full induction and handover were planned with the interim manager.

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 interim manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 20 April 2023 and ended on 11 May 2023. We visited the location’s office/service on 20 April 2023.

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. 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. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 members of staff including the interim manager, nominated individual, recruitment manager, assessor, team leader medicines champion and 3. We also spoke with 4 members of the providers head office including the performance director, continuous improvement manager, medicines co-ordinator and clinical director. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We telephoned 9 people who used the service and 5 relatives. We telephoned 8 members of care staff to gather their feedback on working for Be Caring Manchester.

We reviewed a range of records, including 5 people’s care and medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance, complaints and safeguarding were reviewed.

Updated 23 May 2023

About the service

Be Caring Manchester is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service was supporting 131 people at the time of the inspection, including older people, those living with dementia, people with a physical disability and younger adults.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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

Support plans identified people's support needs. There were varying levels of detail in the guidance for meeting these needs and managing identified risks. The interim manager was aware of this and was supporting the assessors to include the required level of detail. We have made a recommendation to have a robust plan to ensure this is completed in a timely way. People and their relatives had been involved in agreeing and reviewing the care and support plans.

There were enough staff to complete the required calls. Staff said they were able to get to calls on time. Most people or their relatives also said staff were on time. Staff were safely recruited and received the training required for their role. Staff were positive about working for the service and felt well supported by the management team. Consistent staff supported each person so they knew people’s needs well.

People received their medicines as prescribed. People were supported to maintain their health and nutritional needs, where applicable.

A quality assurance system was in place. Improvements had been made where issues had been identified. Communication between people, their families, the staff teams and the management team were good. Any issues raised were resolved.

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.

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 June 2022). There were no breaches of regulations.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action to plan to make further improvements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe, effective and well-led.

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 Be Caring Manchester 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.