Audley Care Stanbridge Earls

Updated 24 September 2021

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

This inspection was carried out by 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. This service also provides care to people living in a retirement village with purpose-built single household accommodation on a shared site. The accommodation is bought and is the occupant’s own home. CQC does not regulate the premises used; this inspection looked at people’s personal care service.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service a short period of 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since registration. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

Prior to making the visit to the office, we spoke with three people’s relatives who lived with or supported a person receiving support from the service. We received feedback from five members of staff. We reviewed the service’s policies and procedures.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager and reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records and one person’s medicines administration record. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance records were also reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We spoke with one further person using the service.

Updated 24 September 2021

About the service

Audley Care is a domiciliary care service providing care to people in their own homes. Audley Care supports people living in a purpose-built retirement village, as well as in the local community. The service is registered to support people under or over the age of 65 who may be living with dementia, physical disabilities or sensory impairments.

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 the inspection, 12 people were receiving personal care.

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

People received support at the right time and for the right length of time. The service had systems in place to identify, monitor and manage risks to people and staff, including processes to prevent and control the risk of infection. Staff had been recruited safely. People received their medicines as prescribed from staff who had received appropriate training.

Staff received a thorough induction and regular supervision. Staff were positive about the training available to them and felt well supported. The service worked collaboratively with people, their family members and health professionals. 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.

We received consistently positive feedback from people and their relatives about how they were treated by staff and their involvement in making decisions about their care.

People had individualised care plans, which provided staff with detailed information about them as a person and their support needs. The service had supported people to develop and maintain relationships throughout the pandemic by arranging a variety of events and on-going activities. The registered manager investigated complaints thoroughly and, where appropriate, implemented changes in response to these.

We received consistently positive feedback from people, their relatives and staff about the management of the service. There were robust systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and drive improvements. People, their relatives and staff had opportunities to give feedback about their care, which was listened to and actioned.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 17 December 2019 and this is the first inspection.

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.