Sisters Care Services CIC

Updated 24 December 2019

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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a community health care agency. It provides treatment of disease, disorder and injury and personal care to people living in their own homes.

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 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 19 November 2019 and ended on 20 November 2019. We visited the office location on 19 November and people and relatives, with their consent, were contacted by telephone and visited on the 20 November 2019.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does 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. We sought feedback from the Local Authority, professionals who work with the service 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. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person who used the service and two relatives to seek their views about their experiences of the care provided. We spoke with three care staff, the registered manager, the deputy manager and the administrator. The registered manager was also the registered provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, the provider’s statement of purpose, contingency plans and a selection of policies.

Updated 24 December 2019

About the service

Sisters Care Services is a community health care agency providing treatment of disease, disorder and injury and personal care to 10 people living in their own homes, at the time of the inspection.

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

The provider monitored the service to ensure it continued to provide a good quality care. However, quality monitoring audits had not been embedded into current working practices and required some improvement.

All the people, relatives, and staff we spoke with said the service provided good quality care. The culture of the service was open and honest and the provider, management team and staff were approachable.

Staff were knowledgeable and kind. Although people did not always have regular staff, they told us staff took the time to listen to them and understood their support needs. People and relatives told us how friendly and caring the staff were. Staff enjoyed their work and got on well with the people they supported who they valued and treated with dignity.

Staff provided responsive and flexible care to people in line with their preferences and choices. If people communicated non-verbally staff knew how to engage with them.

People were safe using the service. Staff knew how to protect people from harm and reduce the risk of accidents and incidents. The service was sufficiently staffed to ensure people's needs were met. Where staff supported people with their medicines, this was done safely. Staff understood how to prevent and control the spread of infection.

People were assessed before using the service to ensure their needs could be met. Assessments addressed people's physical and health needs, their cultural and language needs, and what was important to them. Staff worked with GPs, district nurses, and other health and social care professionals to ensure people's health and social care needs were met.

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.

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 good (published 08 June 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.