ECare Community Also known as ECare

ECare Community is a domiciliary care service that provides care and support to people living in their own homes. This includes a reablement service designed to provide short term care, for a period of up to 6 weeks to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, or following a hospital stay. The service operates in the Tendring, and north Essex area. At the time of our inspection there were approximately 114 people using the service, which included 76 using the reablement service.

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.

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

People felt safe using the service and felt comfortable receiving care in their homes. A person said, “I find them [staff] all very good, I get on well with them.” Where people received support with their medicines, they told us they received them as prescribed.

Staff were kind and caring. People's diverse needs were considered, and people were protected from discrimination. A person told us they received a, “Good service,” another person said that staff, “Allow me the freedom to be ordinary.”

Staff demonstrated a culture of working with people to retain their independence and building up their confidence and abilities to support them in this area. This reflected the positive feedback we received from people using the reablement service and relatives.

Risks associated with people’s individual needs were assessed with measures in place to mitigate them. Lessons were learned when things went wrong because staff understood their responsibilities to report accidents and incidents. Systems were in place to review and oversee accidents and incidents and action was swiftly taken to mitigate risks to people. Staff received training and were aware of the procedures to follow to prevent and control the spread of infection.

Staff received an appropriate induction and were well supported through a programme of regular supervision and training. Staff told us they enjoyed their work and felt valued and supported by the management who they described as approachable.

There were systems in place to monitor calls and provide out of hours support. People and their relatives told us there had been no missed visits, staff respected their home and listened and acted on what they said. People and relatives felt comfortable to raise any concerns with members of the management team direct.

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 felt the service was well led. Systems were in place to check staff followed safe practice and gain people’s views of the service, and act on any feedback as part of driving improvements. We found the management team to be open where there had been problems introducing new systems, and actions they had taken to address them.

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 good (published 19 July 2017).

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for ECare Community on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

ECare Community is a domiciliary care service that provides care and support to people living their own homes. The service operates in the Tendring area of Essex. At the time of our inspection there were approximately 15 people using the service.

At the time of our inspection 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 were safe because staff had the information needed to recognise abuse and keep people safe.

People received safe care that met their assessed needs and the provider had processes in place to manage risk.

There were sufficient staff who had been recruited safely and who had the correct skills to provide care and support in ways that people preferred.

The provider had clear systems in place to manage medicines so that people were supported to take their prescribed medicines safely.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) monitors the operation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and we found that the provider was following the MCA code of practice. The registered manager had a good understanding of the need to ensure people had the capacity to consent to their care and support.

People were supported effectively with their health needs. The registered manager supported staff to provide care that took people’s wishes into account and staff understood their responsibility to treat people as individuals.

People were treated with kindness and respect by staff who knew them well. Staff respected people’s choices and took their preferences into account when providing care and support.

Staff were supported by the management team to provide care that met people’s needs.

The provider had systems in place to check the quality of the service and take the views of people into account to make improvements to the service. There were systems in place for people to raise concerns and there were opportunities available for people to give their feedback about the service.