Background to this inspection
Updated
2 February 2024
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
The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and 1 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 to people living in their own houses and flats.
Registered Manager
This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.
At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.
Notice of inspection
The inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ 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 the last inspection. 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 (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 7 people who used the service, 6 relatives and 9 members of staff including the registered manager.
We reviewed a range of records. This included medicine records and 3 people's care records. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service.
Updated
2 February 2024
About the service
Carers and Companions Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to older people, people with dementia, people with a physical disability, people with a learning disability and autistic people. At the time of our inspection there were 13 people using the service.
People’s experience of the service and what we found:
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessment and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Right Support:
The provider assessed risks to people and demonstrated safety was always effectively managed.
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.
Staff received appropriate training which equipped them with the right skills and knowledge to deliver safe, person-centred care. Safe recruitment processes were in place.
People were usually supported to receive their medicines safely.
Right Care:
Care was personalised and responsive to people’s needs.
People who used the service and their relatives were very happy with the service and confirmed they were involved in planning their care.
Feedback about the management team and staff was consistently positive.
People received support from staff who were reliable, arrived on time and stayed the agreed period.
Right Culture:
The service was consistently well-led. The management team promoted high quality care and monitored practice against the service’s vision and values.
Staff were proud to work at Carers and Companions Ltd.
Effective systems were in place for engaging with people who used the service, their relatives and staff. The service had received many compliments which evidenced people received person-centred care.
Staff and management worked in partnership with other professionals.
During the inspection we identified a small number of areas to improve such as recording the administration of some medicines and formalising staff supervision arrangements. The registered manager was very responsive and took immediate action to address these issues.
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 22 December 2017).
Why we inspected
We inspected due to the length of time since the last inspection.
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 inspection reports and timeline’ link for Carers and Companions Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow Up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.