Background to this inspection
Updated
22 January 2020
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the registered provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was completed by one inspector.
Service and service type
Age UK Medway is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own homes.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
What we did before the inspection
We spoke by telephone with 17 people who used the homecare service and with eight relatives. We also spoke by telephone with five care staff one of whom worked in the footcare service.
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used information the registered provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
We reviewed other information we held about the service. This included notifications of incidents that the registered provider had sent us since our last inspection. These are events that happened in the service that registered providers are required to tell us about.
During the inspection
We spoke with the registered manager, care services manager and a team leader at the service’s office. We reviewed documents and records that described how care had been provided for five people. We also examined documents and records relating to how the service was run including health and safety, the management of medicines, learning lessons when things had gone wrong, obtaining consent and staff training.
After the inspection
We spoke by telephone with three people who used the footcare service.
Updated
22 January 2020
About the service
Age UK Medway is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care for older people. At this inspection the service was providing personal care for 95 people. It also provided footcare for 265 people.
Personal care was provided by the main team of care staff completing care calls to people in their own homes. These care calls were usually completed each day. The footcare service was provided by a separate smaller team of care staff who visited people at home every two months.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care, where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.
In this report we refer to the two parts of the service as being ‘the homecare service’ and ‘the footcare service’ when our conclusions are not applicable to the whole service.
People's experience of using the service and what we found
People and their relatives were positive about the service. A person using the homecare service said, “The staff are friendly and the place is fine for me.” In a thank-you card a relative praised the homecare service for the “first class care” provided for their family member.
People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse. They received safe care and treatment in line with national guidance. There were enough care staff to reliably complete care calls on time and safe recruitment practices were in place. People were supported to safely manage medicines, lessons had been learned when things had gone wrong and good standards of hygiene were promoted. People had been helped to quickly receive medical attention when necessary.
Care staff received training and guidance so they had the knowledge and skills they needed. When necessary, people had been helped to obtain medical attention and to receive consistent care when they moved between service.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and care staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People received compassionate care promoting their dignity and respecting their right to privacy. They were also supported to express their views about things important to them.
People were consulted about their care, given accessible information and supported to pursue their hobbies and interests. There was a procedure for quickly resolving complaints and people were treated with compassion at the end of their lives so they had a dignified death.
Quality checks had been completed. People had been consulted about the development of the service and their suggestions had been implemented. Good team work was promoted, regulatory requirements had been met and joint working was promoted.
For more details, please read 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 4 February 2017).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.