Care and Support Service - Cote Lane

Updated 21 June 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 1 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

This inspection was announced.

We gave the service 48 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.

What we did before the inspection

Before our inspection we completed our planning tool and reviewed the information we held on the service. This included notifications we had received from the provider, about incidents that affect the health, safety and welfare of people supported by the service and previous inspection reports. We also sought feedback from partner agencies and health and social care professionals.

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 6 people who received support from the Care and Support Service and 5 relatives. We spoke with 3 members of staff, the registered manager, and a senior manager. To gather information, we looked at a variety of records. This included 4 care plans and medicine records. We looked at information in relation to staff training and recruitment records. We also looked at other information related to the management of the service including audits and meeting minutes. We did this to ensure the management team had oversight of the service and they could respond to any concerns highlighted or lead in ongoing improvements.

Updated 21 June 2023

About the service

Care and Support Service Cote Lane provides personal care and support to people in their own home. The agency provides care and support for older people, adults with disabilities and people who live with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 32 people using the service.

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

People told us the registered manager and staff were very kind and caring and very good at their jobs. They said they felt safe with their care staff and trusted them. People and relatives were consistently complimentary about the kindness of the staff and the reliability of the service they received. We were told of occasions where staff had gone above and beyond what was expected of them.

The registered manager was very passionate about supporting people who lived in their own home. The registered manager had developed and sustained a positive culture. There was a strong ethos of quality care which ran throughout the service. The registered manager’s leadership of the service aimed to provide high-quality personalised support to people.

The provider recognised that the on-going development of staff skills, competence and knowledge was central to ensuring high-quality care. Staff were well trained and recruited safely, they spoke positively about their role and felt well supported to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively, so that people received care and support in-line with their needs and wishes.

Staff turnover was low, and people told us they were supported by staff who knew and consistently met their needs. The service liaised with health and social care professionals. People's care and support was planned in partnership with them. They told us they felt consulted and listened to about how their care was delivered. People told us they had never had a missed call and staff attended the calls at the appropriate time and stayed for the full duration of the call.

The registered manager used a variety of methods to check the quality of the service and develop good practice. Staff had a clear vision of what was required of them and were focused on doing so. People were supported to engage in individual and group-based community activities within the village that were meaningful to them.

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 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 03 November 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection due to the age of the rating.

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.