Background to this inspection
Updated
12 March 2020
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
This inspection was carried out by one 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 service.
Service and service type
Supporting Care North East Branch is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager is a person who is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
We gave the provider three days’ notice because we needed to ensure somebody would be available to assist us with the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 4 February and ended on 11 February 2020. We visited the office location on 4 and 5 February 2020 to see the management team and to review care records and policies and procedures. We made calls to people and their relatives between 5 and 6 February 2020.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included any significant incidents that occurred at the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We also contacted the local authority commissioning team. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and four staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We also reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included complaints, minutes of team meetings and a range of quality assurance checks.
We spoke with 11 staff members. This included the registered manager, the office manager, a care supervisor and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also spoke with five care workers who were present during the office visit and two care workers over the telephone.
We made calls to all 24 people who used the service and managed to speak with two of them. As the majority of people were unable to fully communicate with us over the telephone we also spoke with 16 relatives.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. The registered manager updated us on a review carried out for one person on 7 February 2020 where we requested further information about how they were supported with their medicines. We also contacted four health and social care professionals who had experience of working with the service and heard back from one of them.
Updated
12 March 2020
About the service
Supporting Care North East Branch is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to younger disabled adults and older people, some living with dementia. At the time of the inspection the provider was supporting 24 people in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
People’s care was either funded by NHS Continuing Healthcare or through a local authority Direct Payment agreement. A Direct Payment is the amount of money that the local authority has to pay to meet the needs of people and is given to them to purchase services that will meet their needs.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and their relatives were positive about the caring nature of the whole staff team. A recent compliment stated, ‘I am most impressed with Supporting Care. The carers are very understanding and professional. I have found the office staff most courteous and helpful. Thank you.’
People and their relatives benefitted from office-based staff and care workers being able to communicate with people in their own language and have a good understanding of their cultural requirements.
People and their relatives felt they received a personalised service and the provider listened to them about how they wanted to be supported. New care workers were introduced to people and their relatives and shadowed regular staff to ensure they had a good understanding of their care needs.
We saw the provider had been flexible to accommodate people’s changing needs. For example, we saw extra calls were scheduled in emergencies and correspondence showed care workers regularly spent extra time with a person due to a change in their wellbeing.
People and their relatives felt staff were experienced and knew how to manage complex health and medical conditions, working in partnership with a range of health and social care professionals to ensure people’s needs were met. A health and social care professional confirmed this and told us they had confidence when referring people’s care to them.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People were supported by a motivated staff team that felt valued and supported in their role. Care workers complimented the open and inclusive working environment and told us they were always listened to if they had any issues or concerns.
The provider was proactive and before we requested a formal action plan, they sent us an action plan on 7 February 2020 based on the initial feedback given at the end of the inspection.
We have made two recommendations that the provider ensures records are updated regarding the support people receive with their medicines and safer recruitment processes are always followed.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The service was registered with us on 5 February 2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the registration date of the service.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality. 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.