Nationwide Care Services Limited (Birmingham and Solihull)

Nationwide Care Services Limited (Birmingham and Solihull) is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults some of whom are living with dementia and younger disabled adults. Not everyone using Nationwide Care Services Limited (Birmingham and Solihull) received a regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service received by people provided with 'personal care': for example, help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection 425 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

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

People received safe care and support as the staff team had been trained to recognise potential signs of abuse and understood what to do to safely support people.

The provider had assessed the risks to people associated with their care and support. Staff members were knowledgeable about these risks and knew what to do to minimise the potential for harm to people.

People received safe support with their medicines by trained and competent staff members.

Staff members followed effective infection prevention and control procedures when supporting people.

The provider supported staff in providing effective care for people through person-centred care planning, training and one-to-one supervision.

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 at Nationwide Care Services Limited (Birmingham and Solihull) supported this practice.

People were referred to additional healthcare services when required.

People received help and support from a kind and compassionate staff team with whom they had developed positive relationships.

People were supported by staff members who were aware of their individual protected characteristics like age, gender and disability.

People were provided with information in a way they could understand. The provider had systems in place to encourage and respond to any compliments or complaints from people or those close to them.

The provider, and management team, had good links with the local communities within which people lived.

The management team and provider had systems in place to identify improvements and drive good care.

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’ overall with ‘Requires Improvement’ in the key question ‘Well-Led,” (Published 29 November 2016.)

At this inspection we found improvements had been made in this key question.

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.

Nationwide Care Ltd (Birmingham & Solihull) is a community based adult social care service, registered to provide personal care for persons within their own home. They currently provide a service for more than 300 people.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At the previous inspection in December 2014, Nationwide Care Services Ltd were rated as good overall, with some improvements required regarding ‘Well Led’, in particular; auditing of records and communication with staff and people that use the service. We saw that although auditing processes had improved, there were still some issues regarding communication and responding to peoples care and support needs when regular staff were unavailable.

People were kept safe. Relatives believed their family members were kept safe. Staff had received training and understood the different types of abuse and knew what action they would take if they thought a person was at risk of harm. Staff were provided with sufficient guidance on how to support people’s medical support needs. People were kept safe by staff that were able to recognise the signs of abuse and raise concerns if needed.

People were supported by staff that had been safely recruited. Relatives felt that their family members were being supported by staff with the appropriate skills and knowledge to care and support them. People were supported with their medication by staff that had received appropriate training.

Staff were trained and supported so that they had the knowledge and skills to enable them to care for people in a way that met their individual needs and preferences. People were supported to make choices and were involved in the care and support they received. Staff had an awareness of the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding (DoLS).

Staff were caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People’s choices and independence was respected and promoted and staff responded to people’s care and support needs.

People and relatives felt they could speak with the provider about their worries or concerns and felt they would be listened to and have their concerns addressed.

The provider had quality assurance and audit systems in place to monitor the care and support people received to ensure the service remained consistent and effective.