Archived: Flexicare Home Services UK

Updated 29 December 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 9 and 17 October 2017 and was announced. We gave the registered manager 48 hours’ notice of our inspection. We did this because the provider or registered manager is sometimes out of the office supporting staff or visiting people who use the service. We needed to be sure that they would be in. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

This service was last inspected on August 2015. Before the inspection the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service. We reviewed the notifications about important events which the service is required to send us by law and also spoke with a local authority commissioners and a healthcare professional about the service.

We spoke with seven people who were using the service and eight people’s relatives. We also spoke with 10 staff which included two care staff, one senior care staff, two care co-ordinator, the registered manager and three representatives of the provider. We reviewed 12 people's care files, staff training and recruitment records and records relating to the general management of the service.

Updated 29 December 2017

This inspection took place on 9 and 17 October 2017 and was announced. Flexicare Home Services UK provides domiciliary care services to a range of people who live in their own home. The service often provides complex care including 24 hour care or care contracted through continuing healthcare. At the time of our inspection there were 68 people with a variety of care needs using the service, including older people, people living with physical disabilities and younger adults.

We last inspected on the 4 and 5 December 2014. At the December 2014 inspection the service was meeting all of the requirements of the regulations and was rated as “Good” with caring rating as “Outstanding”, due to extremely positive feedback from people and their relatives.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People and their relatives spoke extremely positive about the outstanding care they or their relatives received. The service often went above and beyond their contractual obligations to ensure people had a good quality of care. People were placed at the centre of their care and were supported to develop their independence, their lives to the fullest and make choices around their care including who cares for them.

People and their relatives were heavily involved in their care and spoke extremely positively about the professional relationships they had with all staff employed by the provider. The service had strong links with healthcare professionals and was focused on improving and developing care and the care staff role nationally as well as within the service.

People were cared for by committed care staff who were supported by a dedicated management team. People’s relatives were involved in providing training to care staff which enabled them to provide exceptional person centred care. Relatives spoke positively about the support they received to provide this training.

There was a strong structure of leadership within the service. Staff were supported to professionally develop and be responsible for additional duties. Staff felt valued by the service. The registered manager and provider knew and anticipated the needs of staff and had systems to ensure staff had access to the training and support they needed.

Staff and other professionals spoke very highly of the registered manager and gave positive feedback about their approach to caring for people. The service was passionate about providing high quality person centred care for people. All staff understood the providers and registered managers caring values.