7 December 2022
During an inspection looking at part of 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.