Bionicare (Domiciliary Care Agency)

Updated 19 February 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is 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.

This inspection took place between 22 and 24 January 2019 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of this inspection as the service is small and we needed to ensure that support was available for the inspection. This inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Before this inspection we reviewed the information, we held about the service such as notifications we had received from the registered provider. Notifications are when registered providers send us information about changes, events or incidents that occur at the service. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We spoke to three people who use the service, four relatives of people, three staff members, the care coordinator and the area manager. We also spent some time reviewing records. We looked at five people’s care plans, three staff files and the staff rota system, and policies and procedures at the service. We looked at quality monitoring audits, minutes from team meetings, meetings with other professionals and documents which supported the training staff had received.

Updated 19 February 2019

This inspection of Bionicare (Domiciliary Care Agency) took place between 22 and 24 January 2019 and was announced. The service was last inspected in March 2016.

Bionicare (Domiciliary Care Agency) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older people, younger adults, children, people living with dementia, people living with a physical disability, people living with mental health disorders, people living with sensory impairments, people living with eating disorders and people living with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder. On the day of our inspection there were 24 people using the service. Not everyone using Bionicare (Domiciliary Care Agency) received a regulated activity. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care', help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

There was a registered manager employed at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At our last inspection we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the overall rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

However, well-led was rated ‘requires improvement’ as the provider needed to make improvements to their quality monitoring processes. This was because action plans were not always put in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service following audits. Regular feedback was not collected from people and used to improve the quality of the service. Audits were not always effective at noticing where the service could be improved. People were unclear who the registered manager was. People and staff were positive about the management of the service.

Why the service is rated Good.

The service was safe. Systems and processes were in place to protect people from harm and abuse and staff understood these. People had risk assessments in place to mitigate the likelihood of harm. There were enough staff to ensure that people received care visits on time and for the correct duration. Staff had necessary pre-employment checks completed before working at the service. People were supported to take medicines safely. Staff had training and promoted good infection control.

The service was effective. People’s needs were assessed before they started using the service. Staff had sufficient training and knowledge to support people. People were supported with their dietary needs and healthy diets were promoted. People were supported to live healthy lives and were given information or supported to access health professionals where necessary. Staff received effective training to use equipment to support people. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service was caring. People were treated with kindness, respect and compassion. People were involved, and able to make choices about the care they received. People’s privacy, dignity and independence was promoted. Staff took the time to talk to people and build trusting relationships, and support people to achieve their wishes and goals.

The service was responsive. People received personalised care specific to their individual care needs. People’s preferences, likes and dislikes were respected. Equality and diversity was a key value of the service and people’s needs with regard to religion, culture and all other needs were met. Complaints were responded to promptly and the service checked that the complainant was happy with actions taken. People were supported with privacy and dignity at the end of their lives.