Background to this inspection
Updated
10 March 2020
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 team consisted of 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.
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. The service also had a manager in place who supported the daily management of the agency. For this purpose of this report, we will refer to the manager and the registered manager separately.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours’ 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.
Inspection activity started on 4 February 2020 and ended on 5 February 2020. We visited the office location on 4 February 2020.
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 other professionals who know the service. 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 used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, the manager, three staff members and four people supported by the service. We looked at two recruitment records and two people’s care files which included care plans and risk assessments. We looked at information to monitor and improve the service, staff induction, training and supervision. We reviewed compliments and complaints and any feedback received from people and their families. We looked at how medicines were managed and recorded.
Updated
10 March 2020
About the service
Equality Homecare Services Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 11 adults at the time of the inspection.
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
People were safely supported by the staff team. Risks were assessed and monitored. Staff were aware of safe practices to support people and aware of safeguarding guidance and how to report any concerns. Medicines were safely managed.
Assessments were undertaken to ensure the service could meet people’s needs. Assessments captured the support needed with personal care, eating and drinking and the management of medicines. The manager liaised with health and social care professionals to ensure people received the right support at the right time. 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 were well cared for and told us, the staff team were kind and respectful. Staff knew people well and could describe people’s needs. Staff provided dignified care to people and people looked forward to their visits.
Care plans captured people’s needs and had been developed with people and their families. Staff were familiar with care plans and they were regularly reviewed to ensure they remained accurate. A complaints procedure was in place and people felt confident to make a complaint but had not needed to. No complaints had been received since the inspection in September 2016.
The service was well-led, and people and staff were complimentary about the support from the registered manager and the manager. Audits to monitor and improve the service were in place and regular feedback was obtained from people to assure the provider, the service was providing high quality care. Feedback was positive.
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 1 December 2016). There was also an inspection on 7 and 8 May 2019 however, the report following that inspection was withdrawn as there was an issue with some of the information that we gathered.
Why we inspected
This is a planned re-inspection because of the issue highlighted above.
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.