Community Support Services Micare

Updated 30 March 2023

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 1 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.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there were 2 registered managers in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced.

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that a registered manager would be available to support the inspection.

The inspection activity started on 11 January 2023. We visited the registered location office on 12 January 2023 and finished making telephone calls to people using the service and relatives on 6 February 2023. The inspection ended on 6 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 2 people using the service. We received feedback from 8 staff and spoke with 5 external professionals that work with the service. We spoke with the 2 registered managers. We also spoke to 3 relatives about their experience of the care provided and looked at care records, recruitment information and quality assurance information.

Updated 30 March 2023

About the service

Community Support Services Micare is a short-term integrated health and social care service, consisting of reablement, crisis response, discharge to assess, safety net, complex care support and end of life pathway with the aim of supporting people through a crisis or supporting individuals back to independence. The service provides care for people who need immediate support to live independently in their own home. This may be because of a crisis, illness, following discharge from hospital or to identify if people require a permanent care provider to meet their long-term care needs.

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. At the time of the inspection all 14 people using the service were receiving help with personal care

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

People were at the heart of the service and received exceptionally responsive, person-centred care which enabled them to live a life of their choosing. A person had given feedback to the provider, “[The staff] were kind and efficient and very helpful. The team were instrumental to my recovery.”

People and their relatives gave us very positive feedback about the service. We found the service to be exceptionally well-led. Staff and the registered managers had implemented systems and processes to create innovative solutions to help people to remain independent and living at home for as long as possible.

Staff and the registered managers spoke with passion and pride about their roles. Staff had been supported to develop and grow within their roles which gave them purpose. Systems and processes were implemented to make people’s experience as positive as possible. Staff went over and above to support people to re-integrate into their communities.

There were systems and processes in place to protect people from the risk of abuse. When things went wrong there were effective methods to learn and implement improvements. Staff completed training about safeguarding and knew how to report abuse. Risks to people were fully assessed and measures were put in place to reduce them. Assessments contained enough information for staff to provide safe care. Staffing was assessed on a daily basis and packages of care were only supported when there were sufficient staff to meet people's needs.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People's needs, and choices were fully assessed before they received a care package. The care plans we looked at were detailed and holistic, focusing on how people were supported to regain as much independence as possible.

Safe infection control procedures were followed. There were enough supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff.

There were enough staff to meet the needs of people using the service. The necessary recruitment checks were completed for all new staff. Staff received an induction and ongoing training which enabled them to build on their skills and knowledge to provide safe, effective care.

People were supported with their medicines and staff had been trained in the safe administration of medicines. People were supported to eat and drink enough to meet their dietary needs and staff provided support to assist people to regain independence with eating and drinking.

People were supported to live healthier lives and staff worked with a wide range of health and social care professionals to ensure good outcomes for people.

People and their relatives told us they were treated with kindness and compassion; their privacy was respected, and their independence was promoted. People knew how to make a complaint or raise a concern.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

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 20 July 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

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