Bloomsbury Home Care - Cambridgeshire

Updated 15 December 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

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 houses and flats and specialist housing.

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 the service four days’ 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. We also needed to ensure people could consent to us speaking with them. Inspection activity started on 29 November 2021 and ended when we visited the office location on 3 December 2021.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since registration. This included events reported to us such as deaths. 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 received feedback from two social workers and a health professional. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service and three people's relatives. We spoke with five staff including the registered manager and 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. We looked at three people’s care records various risk assessments, two staff files in relation to recruitment, staff training compliance and supervision planning records. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality monitoring audits, incidents and medicines administration records.

Updated 15 December 2021

About the service

Bloomsbury Home Care - Cambridgeshire is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own houses or flats. It provides a service to people with dementia, people with an eating disorder, people with mental health needs and people who misuse drugs and alcohol. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting eight people with personal care.

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

Staff knew people well, supported them to be safe and administered medicines as prescribed. Risks to people were identified, recorded and managed. People told us they felt safe as staff did not rush their care and stayed until all care was completed safely. Lessons were learned when things went wrong, and staff were provided with updated information to help prevent incidents recurring.

A robust process helped ensure staff were supported to develop skills to safely meet people's assessed needs. Staff followed effective procedures which promoted good infection prevention and control (IPC) practices.

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 told us staff gave them choices and respected these when it was safe to do so.

Staff promoted focused on the needs of the person and respected people's choice of communication whilst upholding confidentiality. This helped ensure every person was treated equally well. People’s care was compassionate, respectful, and staff promoted independence and privacy as much as possible.

Concerns were acted on before they became a complaint and compliments were used to recognise good practice. Staff knew what people’s end of life are wishes were, respected these and procedures were in place to involve other professionals if needed.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities and supported staff to promote the provider’s values about being open and honest. People, their relatives and staff had a say in how the service was run and managed.

Monitoring systems and oversight of the service were effective in driving improvements. The provider worked well with others involved in people’s care to help ensure good outcomes for them.

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 30 October 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration with CQC.

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

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.