Bellcare Domiciliary Care Services Ltd

Updated 29 June 2022

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 was carried out by one inspector and two Experts by Experience, who supported the inspection remotely by speaking to people that use the service and their relatives. 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 service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

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

Inspection activity started on 27 April and ended on 20 May 2022. We visited the location’s office on 27 April and 03 May 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since registering. 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 12 people who used the service and 11 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 15 members of staff including the registered manager, director, deputy manager, trainer, office staff and care workers. We received written feedback from two health and social care professionals who regularly work with the service.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 13 people’s care records and multiple medicine records. We looked at two staff files in relation to staff recruitment and supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including accident and incident records, quality assurance documents, training information and a sample of the provider’s policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 29 June 2022

About the service

Bellcare Domiciliary Care Services Ltd is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to older and younger adults, including people living with dementia, physical disabilities and learning disabilities and/or autism. The service was supporting 164 people at the time of our inspection.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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 received safe care from a consistent staff team, who were knowledgeable about how to keep them safe. People were supported by the provider to take positive risks. People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. The provider had systems in place to escalate any concerns identified and learn lessons when incidents occurred.

People’s care was effective. Robust assessments of people’s care needs and detailed care plans were used to drive person-centred care that met their needs. Staff had the knowledge, skills and experience to provide care to people. People were supported to receive coordinated care from the provider and alongside other health and social care services.

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 consistently praised the caring approach staff demonstrated. One relative said, “The staff are so kind and caring, nothing is too much trouble for them, I know when I can’t visit [person] will be fine.” People felt respected and treated with dignity.

People received responsive, individualised care. The provider regularly reviewed people’s care and made changes to ensure it remained appropriate. People and their relatives knew how to raise concerns or complaints, with effective systems in place to ensure these were addressed and improvements sustained.

The provider had a strong value base and vision, reflected in the care people received. One care worker said, “We are trying to help people be as independent as possible and are person-centred with every person. We always work to these values.” This value base motivated care staff to provide consistently high quality care to people and supported the provider to strive to make further improvements.

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. The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support

¿ The service supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and to independence They had control over their own lives.

¿ Staff focused on people’s strengths.

¿ Staff supported people to pursue their interests and access their local area.

Right Care

¿ Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people.

¿ People received kind and compassionate care. Their privacy and dignity were protected.

¿ The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

Right culture

¿ People received good quality care.

¿ Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive.

¿ People’s wishes, needs and rights were at the heart of everything the service did.

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

Rating at last inspection

The service was registered with us on 13/07/2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and based on when the service was registered.

Follow up

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