17 July 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
KEYFORT North West is a domiciliary care service which provides personal and nursing care to people living in their own homes across the county of Cumbria who have a significant physical, neuropathic and complex care needs. There were 9 people using the service at the time of this inspection.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The service also provides a social, community-access service for several other people. 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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People said they received a bespoke service from their staff teams. They praised the staff for their care and kindness. People and relatives said staff were reliable and on time. There was good continuity of care so they had the same regular care staff members. Staff knew how to support each person in the way they preferred.
People and relatives said the service upheld their safety and they felt safe and comfortable when staff were supporting them. There were enough staff to cover everyone’s visits and to provide a contingency for any gaps. Any potential risks to people were assessed by the provider and safety measures put in place. The provider checked if staff were suitable to work with people. People had confidence in staff’s abilities and competence.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Records about consent were detailed and clear.
The provider had governance system to check the quality of the service. A management team had good oversight of the service and had improvement actions in place to address some historic gaps in staff refresher training.
People and relatives did not always feel communication with the provider was practical or effective. People said the service did not have a local office and contact by telephone was difficult. Staff felt valued and supported but also commented on communication with colleagues as an area for improvement. We have made a recommendation about improving contact between the provider and people.
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 19 June 2018).
At our last inspection we recommended the provider made improvements to contingency staffing arrangements. At this inspection we found the provider had acted on the recommendation and staff contingency arrangements had improved.
Why we inspected
We carried out this inspection due to the length of time since the last inspection.
This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions Safe and Well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for KEYFORT North West on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendations
We have made a recommendation for the provider to support improved communication with people and staff.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.