22 November 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Firstpoint Homecare Darlington is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to predominantly older people living in their own houses and flats in and around the Darlington and Northallerton area. At the time of this inspection, 47 people were using the service.
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 this inspection, 38 people who were using the service were in receipt of personal care.
People’s experience of the service and what we found:
People spoke highly of the staff team and the quality of care they provided. People felt safe and were confident in raising any concerns. Staff had access to the relevant personal protective equipment (PPE) and people told us this was appropriately used during care visits.
Safe recruitment processes were in place and followed. People were supported by a consistent team of staff. People were aware of which care staff were due to come to their visits and the expected time.
Medicines were managed safely. Staff had received appropriate training and had their competencies assessed to ensure they were following best practice guidance. Records in relation to topical medicines, such as creams, did not always clearly state where the medicine was to be applied. We have made a recommendation about this.
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.
The registered manager had effective oversight of the service. Quality assurance processes were in place and used to monitor and improve the quality of care. People told us they were asked to provide feedback and felt their preferences and views were listened to. Staff spoke highly of the registered manager and their support and commitment to the service.
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 August 2018)
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Firstpoint Homecare Darlington on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendations
We have made a recommendation about the recording of medicines.
Follow Up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.