Cherish UK Ltd

Updated 7 July 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

Two inspectors and two Experts by Experience completed the inspection. 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. This service also provides care and support to people living in five supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection as we needed to be sure the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

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 and professionals who work with the service. This information helps support our inspections. We used all this information to plan our 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with 16 people who used the service and six relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 22 members of staff including the registered manager, office staff and carers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and ten staff files in relation to recruitment. 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.

Updated 7 July 2021

About the service

Cherish UK is a domiciliary care agency situated on Amy Johnson Way business park in Blackpool. The agency covers a wide range of dependency needs including adults and children, people with a learning disability, people with mental health support needs and younger adults with a physical disability.

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

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.

This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture. We visited three people who were able to access health and social care community based facilities. With help from staff, they maintained contact with and visited their loved ones. Staff had good knowledge of people's personalities and abilities. Staff were aware of people's likes, wishes and wants and this was reflected in their home environments. We observed people were confident in sharing their views and opinions with staff.

Safe recruitment practices were consistently documented. Safeguarding procedures were in place to protect people from the risk of abuse by staff who understood and were trained on how to recognise and respond to concerns. Infection control systems and audits continued to ensure a clean environment for people. Staff had access to suitable amounts of appropriate personal protective equipment to minimise the spread of infection. Not all staff were participating in regular testing for the COVID-19 virus.

The management team were clear about their roles and responsibilities. They worked in partnership with a variety of agencies to ensure people's health and social needs were met. They provided additional support to promote people’s physical and mental health. The registered manager used a variety of methods to assess and monitor the quality of the service. This ensured the service continued to be monitored and improve.

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 12 October 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

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.