Background to this inspection
Updated
21 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 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 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 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 15 December 2022 and ended on 3 January 2023. We visited the location’s office on 15 December 2022. We contacted people who use the service, people’s relatives and staff between 20 December 2022 and 3 January 2023 to gather their views about the service.
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. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with 2 members of the management team and looked at the care records for 4 people. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We also looked at a range of records relating to the management of the service and how the registered manager gathered people’s views about the service. We contacted 3 people who used the service and the relatives of 3 people to gather their views. We also contacted 3 members of the care team to gather their views.
Updated
21 January 2023
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
At the time of the inspection, the location did not provide care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right support, right care, right culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.
About the service
Corporate Care Furness Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The service supports people living in Barrow, Ulverston and the surrounding areas of South Cumbria. There were 50 people receiving personal care when we inspected.
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
Right Support: Staff gave people choices about their care and promoted people’s control of their lives and independence. They gave people support, as they needed, to make decisions about their care. 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.
Right Care: People received kind and compassionate care from a small team of staff who knew them well. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.
Right Culture: The registered manager was committed to providing people with person-centred care which promoted positive outcomes. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. People valued the support they received and told us they would recommend the service.
People were protected from avoidable harm. The registered manager had identified potential risks to people’s safety and staff were trained in how to provide care in a safe way. There were enough staff to support people. Staff gave people the support they needed to take their medicines. People were protected from the risk of infection. Staff were trained in infection prevention and control and used appropriate personal protective equipment. The registered manager had systems to ensure lessons were learned from any incidents and shared with the staff team to ensure people’s safety.
The registered manager had asked people for their views and used their feedback to further improve the service. Staff worked effectively with other services which supported people, to ensure people received the care they needed and experienced positive outcomes. The registered manager was very experienced and aware of their legal responsibilities. They were committed to the continuous improvement of the service.
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, (report published 27 September 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
The service had not been subject to any formal regulatory review since the inspection in 2018. We undertook a focused inspection to seek assurance people continued to receive safe, high-quality care.
We reviewed the key questions of safe and well-led only. 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 remained good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Corporate Care Furness Limited 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.