Care Dynamics Ltd

Updated 16 January 2024

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

The inspection team consisted of 2 inspectors who visited the location’s office and 1 inspector who visited and contacted people and staff on the telephone.

Service and service type

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

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 were 2 registered managers in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 29 November 2023 and ended on 8 December 2023. We visited the location’s office on 30 November 2023 and 6 December 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority service improvement and safeguarding teams. The provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people and received feedback from 6 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We received feedback from 12 members of staff including care workers, care coordinators, and the registered managers, one of whom is the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 6 people's care and support records and 3 people's medicine administration records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We also reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, staffing rotas, accident and incident records, safeguarding records and quality assurance reports. We received written responses from 7 health and social care professionals.

Updated 16 January 2024

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Care Dynamics Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Some of these people have a learning disability and other people are older people. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care to 56 people.

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

Right Support

Staff knew people well and risk assessments detailed action staff should take when providing daily care and support. People told us they were happy with the service they received from Care Dynamics Ltd. 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. Staff promoted independence every day for people. Medicines were managed and administered safely.

Right Care

People told us they felt safe with staff. People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. People received their care from a consistent team of care staff who knew their care and support needs well. Staff received training to support people using a person-centred approach; one person told us, “The carers take my family into consideration.” The registered managers liaised with health and social care professionals when they needed an expert’s input regarding people’s health or identified additional time was needed to continue to provide care safely.

Right Culture

People using the service, staff and health and social care professionals consistently described the registered managers as “present,” “contactable” and, “will try their best to help resolve any concerns”.

Staff received an appropriate induction and were well supported through a programme of regular supervision and training. Staff spoke knowledgably about how people preferred their care and support to be given.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was outstanding (published 15 February 2019).

Why we inspected

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

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 outstanding to good based on the findings of this inspection.

Follow up

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