Jewel Home Support (Lancs)

Updated 24 February 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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

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 24 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 27 January 2023 and ended on 3 February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 27 January 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We attended the office and spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager and four members of care staff. We looked at records in relation to people who used the service including four care plans, medication records and systems for monitoring the quality of the service provided.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at policies and quality assurance records. We spoke with five people and four relatives on the telephone to help us understand their experience of the care and support received.

Updated 24 February 2023

About the service

Jewel Home Support (Lancs) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people who live in their own homes. It provides a service to older people and those who may live with dementia and a physical disability.

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. At the time of our inspection the service was providing support to 60 people.

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

Although the provider identified and managed risks to people, we have made a recommendation for risk assessments to contain more person centred detail.

Staff were knowledgeable about risks to people and people and their relatives told us they felt staff delivered care and support in a way which kept them safe and free from harm.

Although the service had received some complaints about the quality and consistency of care and support, changes had been made to improve the quality of the service people received. Action had been taken to help lessen the risk of repeated complaints in the future.

Since the last inspection, changes had been made to practices and systems to help staff feel better supported in their roles. Staff told us they felt well supported by the management team. Staff recruitment process ensured staff were safe to work with people.

People had a say in their own care and support plan and were supported by a consistent staff team who were familiar with their needs and routines. Staff supported people to retain their independence in order to remain living in their own homes.

We received positive feedback from both people who used the service and their relatives about the care and support they received.

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.

The service demonstrated a commitment to delivering good quality care and support to people. Governance processes had been improved to help better evaluate performance to monitor and improve standards of care. This was underpinned by collaborative working to achieve positive outcomes for people.

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 (21 October 2021). At our last inspection we recommended the provider developed risk assessments to include further detail for staff to follow, renewed systems for supporting staff and reviewed their governance processes to help better evaluate performance to monitor and improve standards of care.

At this inspection we found that although the provider had acted on our recommendations and made improvements, further time was required to evidence the effectiveness of improved practices.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staff training, medicines managements and staffing. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.