Absolute Care

Updated 16 August 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

The inspection was undertaken by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing.

Notice of Inspection

This inspection was announced.

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service is small and people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

Registered manager

The registered provider managed the service and was legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The service is not required to also have a registered manager with the Care Quality Commission as a condition of their registration.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we checked the information that we held about the service. This included statutory notifications sent to us by the provider about incidents and events that had occurred at the service. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We also requested feedback from the local authority. Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 27 February 2023 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

What we did during our inspection

Inspection activity started on 8 June 2023 and ended on 13 June 2023. We visited the location’s office on 8 June 2023. We spoke to people and made contact with staff on 13 June 2023.

We spoke with the provider, the office manager and contacted 3 staff. We spoke to 3 relatives and 1 person about their experience of the care provided. We reviewed a range of documentation, including 3 care plans and 3 recruitment records as well as medication records and other documentation relating to the running of the service.

Updated 16 August 2023

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.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

About the service

Absolute Care Northwest Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 5 people at the time of the inspection.

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.

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

Right Support: People were able to choose which staff supported them, and their preference and choices for support were assessed and reviewed. We have made a recommendation with regards to governance systems, this was because although some systems were in place, they were not always formalised.

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: People were supported by staff who knew them well, and were always on time for their calls. Some staff training required updating, which we highlighted with the provider and they have since taken action. People’s relatives told us they felt happy and trusted the agency caring for their family member. One relative said they were “tremendous.”

Right Culture: The provider worked as part of the team, staff said they knew the provider well, and they were always on hand to provide advice and support. All staff said the felt valued, and felt the provider cared about the people they supported.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 4 June 2019)

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

We received concerns in relation to the management of medicines and some specialist training for staff. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only. 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 remained good. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe, effective and well led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Absolute Care Northwest 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.