Say Care Limited

Updated 7 December 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 24 November 2021 and ended on 29 November 2021. We visited the office location on 25 November 2021.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we reviewed information we had received about the service, including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. We reviewed additional information previously received from the service and feedback received from three people who use the service and three relatives.

We used the information the 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.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager, an office administrator, the IT manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. The nominated individual and registered manager are both directors for Say Care Limited.

We reviewed a range of records including eight people's care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service about their experience of the care provided, four relatives and four staff members via telephone. We continued to review additional information received from the service including, audits, compliments, training data and quality assurance records. We sought clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 7 December 2021

About the service

Say Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care for people who require this due to old age, illness or disability. 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. At the time of the inspection the agency was providing care for 18 people.

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

People were supported by caring, well trained staff that had been subject to a thorough recruitment and induction process. There were sufficient numbers of consistent staff available to meet people's needs.

Staff supported people safety and risks to people were assessed, managed and monitored. People received their medicines as prescribed and infection control risks were managed effectively.

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.

People, their relatives and staff felt confident to raise any concerns with the management team. Evidence was seen of action being taken in response to concerns, to improve the care of people being supported by the service.

The management team kept in regular contact with people by visiting them in their homes, checking if they were happy with the service they received and if any changes were needed.

The management team were open and transparent. They understood their regulatory responsibilities. A quality assurance system was in place to continually assess, monitor and improve the service. The service worked well with other partners, organisations and commissioners.

For more details, please see 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 requires improvement (published 27 March 2020).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Say Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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.