Blossom Care For You LTD

Updated 25 August 2022

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 homes.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service two days’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed the provider to make sure people we wanted to contact for feedback consented to taking part in the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed all the information we had about the provider, including the previous inspection report, the providers plan of action to improve, and recent intelligence about the quality of the service.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. 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 used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 26 October 2021 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

Inspection activity started on 20 July 2022 and ended on 26 July 2022. We visited the provider’s office on 20 July 2022.

We spoke with five members of staff, including the operations manager. We spoke with ten people who used the service and family members. We reviewed five care plans, three staff records, and other files, records, policies and procedures.

We reviewed all the evidence collected to make rating judgements according to our published assessment framework.

Updated 25 August 2022

About the service

Blossom Care for You LTD is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 59 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. In this service, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) can only inspect the service received by people who get support with personal care. This includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where people receive such support, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People’s feedback was very positive. One person said, “I am very happy. The carers look after me well.” A relative said, "The last few months have been nine out of 10. On the right track!"

We found improvements had been made since our last inspection. The provider was now meeting the fundamental standards of care as defined in the regulations.

There had been no registered manager at Blossom Care for You LTD for 12 months. We found further improvements were still needed in how the provider audited the quality of service, and how the provider planned to keep the service going in the event of an emergency.

We have made a recommendation about the provider's business continuity plan.

The provider had made improvements in how risks to people’s safety and wellbeing were managed, how people's medicines were administered, and how they responded when things went wrong. There were enough staff to support people safely. Processes were in place to protect people against the risks of abuse and infectious disease.

People received care and support that was effective, based on detailed assessments and care plans, and delivered by staff with the necessary skills and training. 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.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 25 September 2019).

At our last inspection we found breaches of the regulations in relation to:

- the provider’s failure to do all that was reasonable to reduce risks to people’s safety,

- the provider’s failure to have effective systems to monitor the quality of care people received, and

- the provider’s failure to make sure they acted in people’s best interests where they lacked capacity to make certain decisions.

After the last inspection, we issued warning notices requiring the provider to comply with the first two regulations by 15 October 2019. The provider sent us a plan of action to tell us what they would do and by when to improve with respect to the third breach.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was now meeting these regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 21 June 2019. We found breaches of three regulations as described above.

We undertook this focused inspection to check if the provider had made improvements and if they were now meeting the legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe, effective and well-led.

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. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Blossom Care for You LTD 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.