Updated 24 October 2024
Date of assessment – 24 October 2024 to 18 November 2024. Newbus Middlesbrough is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of the assessment 42 people were being supported. This is the first assessment of this location and was a responsive assessment due to receiving concerns in relation to the sponsorship licence and staffing at the service. We looked at all quality statements. Although issues with staff sponsorship at the service continued, which the home office were dealing with; we found enough, dedicated staff in place to provide a good quality service to people. We found no impact to the level of care being provided due to the issues with sponsorship and people were highly complementary about the staff team. During feedback, the provider acknowledged that further work was required with quality assurance systems as they were not as robust as they could be. They were planning to embed new governance procedures to address this. People were kept safe. Robust safeguarding procedures were in place. Risks to people were assessed and reviewed. People’s independence was promoted, and they were supported in ways they chose. People were treated with equity and had their needs met by a dedicated staff team who were kind and caring. Care records identified people’s individual needs, and the provider told us this was an area which they were working on to further improve levels of detail. Staff were safely recruited, trained and supported. However, the ongoing issues with staff sponsorship at the service was making it difficult for the provider to recruit suitable staff.