Ace Social Care

Updated 10 March 2023

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people and staff.

Inspection team

This 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave short notice of the inspection in order for the registered manager to provide us with the documentation we needed to look at. Inspection activity started on 15 February 2023 and ended on 1 March 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since it was last inspected. 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 3 people’s family members and obtained feedback from 4 members of staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included people’s care records and various medication records. We looked at staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as phone and video calls to enable us to engage with people and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.

Updated 10 March 2023

About the service

Ace Social Care is a service providing support for people in their own homes. The service was supporting 7 people 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 spoke positively about their experience of receiving care from this provider. One person’s relative said: “The girls [care staff] are always friendly, no problems with them at all.”

The manager had a good oversight of the service and knew people’s needs well. The manager was committed to continuous improvement and passionate about the quality of service people received. Staff told us they felt well-supported by the manager and described them as “ always available, any time you need help.”

Medicines were managed safely with regular audits of people’s care, including their medication, taking place.

Staff had a good understanding of infection control procedures, and told us personal protective equipment (PPE) was plentiful. One staff member said: “There’s everything we need, and if you’re running low it’s easy to get more.”

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. Care took place in accordance with people’s consent, and staff confirmed they always checked people’s preferences before carrying out care tasks.

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 requires improvement (published September 2020) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service is good based on the findings of this inspection. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ace Social Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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 until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.