Best Support Care Ltd

Updated 30 July 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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 a short period of notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

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 took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We reviewed information we had received about the service from a variety of sources including notifications received from the registered manager (events which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us

about). We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people and one relative of a person who used the service. We spoke with four staff members, including the registered manager, a care coordinator and two care workers. We reviewed a range of records, including all three people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were also reviewed.

Updated 30 July 2022

About the service

Best Support Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to people living with dementia and older people. 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. At the time of our inspection there were three people using the service and all received support with personal care.

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

People had care plans in place, however they were not always updated regularly, and we found that some information was not up to date. The main risks to people’s health and safety were identified, however guidance for staff was not always provided on how to mitigate the risks. This increased the risks of people’ s needs not being met safely.

Not all staff had completed all the mandatory training modules available to them online. This increased the risk of staff not carrying out their role safely.

People received their medicines safely, however improvements were required to ensure Best Practice Guidance for administration of ‘When Required’ Medication (PRNs) is followed.

There were enough staff to meet the needs of the people using the service and people received their support visits on time.

People were safe from the risk of abuse. We received no concerns about the safety of anyone using the service.

Staff followed safe infection prevention control (IPC) practices.

We saw the provider worked collaboratively with professionals to understand people’s needs.

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 received support from kind and caring staff. Staff were respectful and promoted people’s independence. People and their relatives were involved in decisions about their care, which was regularly reviewed.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 23 September 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection following registration.

Follow up

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