A50 Ltd

Updated 11 May 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and nursing care to people living in their own homes.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be available to support the inspection when we visited.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used this information to plan our inspection.

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.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 family members about their experience of the care provided to their relatives. We also spoke with the registered manager, human resources manager and 3 staff members who provided care to people. We received feedback from 4 healthcare professionals about their experiences of working with this provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included people's care plans and risk assessments, medicines management procedures and staff files in relation to training and recruitment data. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and policies were also reviewed.

Updated 11 May 2023

About the service

A50 is a domiciliary care agency. It provides nursing and personal care to people living in their own homes. The service provides support to children and older people. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 7 people with conditions such as cerebral palsy, dementia and mobility needs.

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

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.

Although training provided for staff was meeting their role expectations, some staff's understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) was limited. Action taken by the provider to address this gap will be reviewed at our next planned inspection.

The provider had made important improvements since the last inspection to ensure safe and effective care delivery to people. There was a strong leadership at the service with shared responsibilities to support the staff team and monitor the quality of the care provided.

Feedback received from family members was mainly positive and praised the staff team for their caring and kind interactions with people. People's wishes and choices were adhered to with respect and their independence was valued by the staff that supported them.

The service was in the process of updating people's risk assessments to ensure they appropriately assessed the risks associated with people's care. Family members told us that the care provided was safe. Regular staff were provided and they attended the visits on time. People received their medicines as prescribed. The provider followed current best practice guidelines to safely recruit staff and effectively manage risks associated with infection prevention and control (IPC).

Staff felt supported in their role. There were close working relationships with the healthcare professionals who trained staff to meet people's complex support needs. Systems were in place to regularly gather people's and their family members' feedback to support the good care provision.

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 overall rating for this service was requires improvement (published 30/09/2022 ). 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.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for A50 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, which will help inform when we next inspect.