Time to Care Specialist Support Services Limited

Updated 3 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 team consisted of an inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced. Inspection activity started on 25 April 2023 when we visited the location’s office on 25 April 2023. We also made further contact with staff and people who use the service on 20 and 21 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we already held about the service, including views gathered by Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 6 members of staff. This included the registered manager, the nominated individual, the activity co-ordinator, HR manager, a senior support worker and a support worker. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We also tried to speak with 10 people who use the service and their relatives to gain feedback but not all were available to answer the phone. We spoke to 1 person who used the service, 1 of their relatives and a live-in-carer.

During our visit we looked at people’s care records, staff training and recruitment records as well as the policies and procedures used by the provider to manage the service.

Updated 3 August 2023

About the service

Time to Care Specialist Support Services Limited is a homecare service that provides personal care and support or enablement to people with learning disabilities, autism or related conditions and/or people with physical or mental health needs. 10 people received support for a regulated activity at the time of the inspection.

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

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.

Right Support: People who used the service had their needs assessed before they began receiving care. They had appropriate plans in place to aid in living independent lives and were involved in decisions and reviews about their care.

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: The staff providing care were well trained to do so and quality checks were carried out to ensure that standards were being met. People we spoke to had positive experiences of using the service. We saw evidence of staff working with partner organisations to meet the needs of people who used the service.

Right Culture: There was a positive culture for the people who use the service. Staff who worked there benefited from the strong support from the management team, including values checks at supervisions and feedback calls from the registered manager and human resources (HR). Staff that we spoke with spoke positively about their roles and about providing care to people who used the service.

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 (report published 31 January 2020).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the time that had passed since our last inspection.

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 has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Time to Care Specialist Support Services Limited 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.