Ambercare (North west) Ltd

Updated 14 January 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 was carried out by an inspector and an Expert 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.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It 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

We gave the service 48 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 7 December 2022 and ended on 20 December 2022. We visited the location’s office on 7 December 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 13 October 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. 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. We gathered feedback from health professionals who worked with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we looked at a variety of records, including 3 care records and risk assessments and 2 staff recruitment files. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance records, policies and staff training records. We talked to the registered manager, the office manager and 3 care assistants. The Expert by Experience spoke with 3 people who used the service and 8 family members on the telephone to get their opinion about the service.

Updated 14 January 2023

About the service

Ambercare (Northwest) Limited is a domiciliary care service, providing personal care and support to people living in and around Oldham and Saddleworth. At the time of our inspection they were supporting 85 people. 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.

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

We found improvements were needed in some aspects of managerial oversight and governance of the service. Staff supervision had fallen behind and had not been carried out in line with the service’s training policy. Accident/incident reporting needed to be improved so that actions taken following an investigation were fully documented. There had been no over arching analysis of accidents/incidents. This helps to identify trends or patterns and can prevent future reoccurrence. Although the majority of care records were detailed, we found some information was missing.

People and their relatives told us they felt safe using the service. There were enough staff available to meet people's needs at their requested time. The service had a robust recruitment process which ensured suitable staff were employed. Staff followed correct infection control practices.

People and their relatives spoke highly of the care provided by Ambercare (Northwest) Ltd. They told us they were supported by kind and thoughtful staff. Staff maintained people’s dignity and privacy during care provision and promoted their independence.

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 good (published 29 September 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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 good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection. We found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified a breach in relation to the governance of the service. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.