Exceptional Care At Home Ltd

Updated 2 October 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.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Exceptional Care At Home Ltd 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 notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to ensure the registered manager would be available to support the inspection during the visit to the office location.

Inspection activity started on 17 August 2021 and ended on 02 September 2021. We visited the office location on 02 September 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person who used the service, relatives of three other people and three staff by telephone. We spoke with the registered manager during the visit to the office location.

We asked the provider to send us various records and documents that we reviewed before the visit to the office location. This included care plans and risk assessments for two people, and staff recruitment and training records. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service, including quality monitoring audits.

Updated 2 October 2021

About the service

Exceptional Care At Home Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting six people with personal care.

Not everyone supported by this type of service receives 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.

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

The provider had quality monitoring processes, but these did not always identify date and typographical errors in records. However, the registered manager assured us that they will improve their processes.

The registered manager was passionate about providing good care to people. There was collaborative working with people, relatives, staff and health professionals so that people received the right support.

People felt safe and well supported by staff and the registered manager. One person said, “I feel safe with [registered manager] because [they] care about what goes on.” Risks to people had been managed well. Medicines were managed safely by trained staff. Staff followed infection prevention and control guidance to reduce the risk of the spread of infections. There were reviews of incidents and accidents, and preventative actions had been taken when needed.

Information in people’s care plans helped staff to provide safe and effective care. Staff were appropriately trained for their roles. They felt supported by the registered manager. When required, staff supported people well to eat and drink.

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.

People and their relatives said staff were kind, caring and friendly. Staff had good relationships with people they supported, and they said they enjoyed working at the service. People were involved in decisions about their care and support. Staff supported people in a way that promoted their privacy, dignity and independence.

People said their care was planned and provided in a way that met their individual needs. People’s complaints and concerns were dealt with. Where required, appropriate action taken to improve the service. Staff supported people at the end of their lives if this support was required.

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

Rating at last inspection

This is the first inspection for this service.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the provider’s registration date and our monitoring of the service.

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.