Archived: Comfort Call Oldham

Comfort Call Oldham is a Domiciliary Care Agency, which provides personal care support to people living in their own homes in the Oldham and Rochdale area and two extra care housing schemes based in Oldham. Its office is based on the outskirts of Oldham in Shaw.

The service had 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At the time of our inspection the service were supporting 131 people. We spoke with 15 people who used the service and five relatives about their experiences using the agency. The majority of people we spoke with told us they were happy with the service provided, but a minority of people highlighted areas they felt could be improved, particularly regarding the timings of calls.

Systems were in place to make sure people received their medication. And audits of MAR charts were completed monthly. However we noted that five care staff were out of date in their medication training and had not been competency checked for over two years. This posed a risk to people as staff who are not competent or trained to give the correct medication may result in medication errors.

This was a breach of Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Care staff told us that overall there were enough staff employed to meet the needs of the people being supported, and we saw additional staff were being recruited. However, care staff said sometimes calls were late due to last minute sickness or needing to stay with someone longer than planned to ensure people’s needs were met.

People’s needs had been assessed before their care package commenced and they told us they had been involved in formulating and updating their care plans. We found the information contained in the care records we sampled were person centred and clearly identified people’s needs and preferences, as well as any risks associated with their care and the environment they lived in.

People received a service that was based on their personal needs and wishes. Staff told us that changes in people’s needs were quickly identified and their care plans amended to reflect these changes. Where people needed assistance taking their medication this was administered in a timely way by staff who had been trained to carry out this role.

The requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) were in place to protect people who may not have the capacity to make decisions for themselves. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets out what must be done to make sure that the human rights of people who may lack mental capacity to make decisions are protected, including balancing autonomy and protection in relation to consent or refusal of care or treatment.

There was a recruitment system that helped the employer make safer recruitment decisions when employing new staff. We saw new staff had received a structured induction and essential training at the beginning of their employment. This had been followed by regular refresher training to update their knowledge and skills. Staff told us they felt well supported and received regular supervision and an annual appraisal of their work performance.

The company had a complaints policy which was provided to each person in the information pack provided at the start of their care package. When concerns had been raised we saw the correct procedure had been used to record, investigate and resolve issues.

The provider had a system in place to enable people to share their opinion of the service provided.

There were quality assurance systems in place to monitor the quality of service provided. Where improvements were needed the provider had put action plans in place to address these.