Archived: Comfort Call Accrington

Updated 9 June 2017

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 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.

The inspection took place on 20 and 21 March 2017and we gave the provider 48 hours’ notice as we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available to participate in the inspection. The inspection was carried out by two adult social care inspectors and two experts by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The experts by experience contacted people who received support from the service by telephone, to gain feedback about the care they received.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service including concerns, safeguarding information and statutory notifications received from the service. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law.

We contacted three community healthcare professionals who were involved with the service for feedback about the care provided, including a district nurse, occupational therapist and speech and language therapist. We received responses from two professionals, who gave positive feedback about the service. We also contacted the Quality and Contracting Unit at Lancashire County Council and Healthwatch Lancashire for feedback. They advised that they had no concerns about the service.

As part of the inspection we spoke on the telephone with 18 people who received support from the service and two relatives. We also visited two people at home. We spoke with four care staff, the registered manager and the regional manager. In addition, we reviewed the care records of six people receiving support. We looked at service records including staff recruitment, supervision and training records, policies and procedures, complaints and compliments records and records of checks that had been completed to monitor the quality of the service being delivered. We also looked at the results of the most recent customer satisfaction survey.

Updated 9 June 2017

We carried out an inspection of Comfort Call Accrington on 20 and 21 March 2017. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice to ensure that the registered manager would be available when we visited.

Comfort Call Accrington is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care and support to people with a variety of needs including older people, people living with dementia, younger adults, people with a learning disability, autistic spectrum disorder, physical disability or sensory impairment and people who need support with their mental health. The agency’s office is located in Accrington in East Lancashire. At the time of our inspection the service was providing support to 110 people. This was our first inspection of this service.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager at the service who had been registered with the Commission since February 2015. 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.

During our inspection people told us they felt safe when staff supported them. Staff had a good understanding of how to safeguard vulnerable adults from abuse and were aware of the appropriate action to take if they suspected abuse was taking place.

Records showed that staff had been recruited safely and they received an appropriate induction. Staff received regular supervision and their practice was observed regularly to ensure that they were providing safe care. Staff told us they felt well supported by management at the service.

We found that people’s medicines were managed safely and people told us they received their medicines when they should. Staff competence to administer medicines safely was assessed regularly.

People were supported with their healthcare needs and were referred to healthcare professionals when appropriate. We received positive feedback about the service from two community healthcare professionals.

People told us they were happy with the care and support they received from the service. They told us that they were involved decisions about their care.

People told us staff arrived on time and stayed for the full duration of the visit. However, people told us that they did not always know who would be supporting them. They told us they were not always introduced to new staff or informed when someone different would be visiting them.

People told us the staff who supported them were caring. They told us staff respected their privacy and dignity when providing care and encouraged them to be independent.

Staff understood the main principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and supported people to make everyday decisions about their care. Where people lacked the capacity to make decisions about their care, their relatives were consulted.

People were asked to give feedback about the service in annual satisfaction questionnaires. We reviewed the questionnaires from May 2016 and found that people reported a high level of satisfaction with most aspects of the service.

Most people we spoke with told us they were happy with the way the service was being managed. They found the staff and management team approachable and knew who to contact if they had any concerns.

We saw evidence that regular audits were completed by the registered manager and the service provider. These checks were effective in ensuring that appropriate levels of care and safety were maintained.