Apollo Home Healthcare Limited - North Office

Updated 9 August 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 using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The 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 to people living in their own homes 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

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 3 July 2023 and ended on 10 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

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 reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as video calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation. We spoke to 2 people and 6 relatives, about their experience of the service. We spoke with 9 staff, including the registered manager, senior operations lead, head of clinical and quality a nurse and support staff. We reviewed 3 staff files and 4 care records and 4 records relating to medicines management. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, audits and checks.

Updated 9 August 2023

About the service

Apollo Home Healthcare Limited is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal and or nursing care to children and adults, in their own houses and flats. 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. The service was providing personal care to 26 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this 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 assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

People and relatives told us staff were not always available to fulfil their care package. The service had recognised this, contingency plans were in place and recruitment was ongoing. However, this remained a concern at the time of our inspection. Risks people were exposed to were assessed and care records included relevant information to guide staff on how to deliver support to keep people safe. Staff were trained and knowledgeable about people’s needs. Medicines were safely managed. People were supported to access community activities and staff had assisted some families to go on holiday.

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.

Right Care

Staff were kind and promoted people’s privacy and dignity. People and where appropriate their relatives were involved in reviews about their care. Staff promoted choice and care plans were personalised to each individual. Staff supported people using their preferred methods of communication. The service worked closely with external professionals, and this involvement was recorded in people's care plans, to ensure people had their needs met.

Right Culture

We received mixed feedback about the leadership and communication systems at the service. Some people told us they were not informed in a timely way about staff allocations. We have made a recommendation the provider reviews their systems around staff allocations. Staff told us they felt supported by the management team and staff morale was good. Quality assurance systems were in place and action plans were ongoing to drive improvements.

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 the service at the previous premises was good (published on 12 January 2019).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date the service was registered with CQC.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the well-led sections of this full report.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation the provider reviews their systems and processes around the management of staff allocations and how information is communicated to relevant people.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.