Gentle Folk Community Care

Updated 16 July 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

Consisted of 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.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we wanted to be sure the registered manager was available to speak with us.

What we did:

Before inspection: We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local health and social care authorities. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During inspection: Inspection activity started on 25 June 2019 when we visited the office premises and ended 27 June 2019 when we completed telephone calls to people using the service. We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager and three members of care staff. We reviewed eight people’s care records, three people’s medicine records and three people’s topical medicine records. We looked at staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures.

We spoke with four people who use the service and five people’s relatives. We contacted three healthcare professionals by email to source feedback, but did not receive any responses.

Updated 16 July 2019

About the service: Gentle Folk Community Care provides domiciliary care services to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, the service provided care and support to 43 people, of those, 26 people were receiving a regulated activity of ‘personal care.’

People’s experience of using this service:

People accessing care services from Gentle Folk Community Care were encouraged and supported to maintain social networks and access their local community. Staff showed empathy, kindness and compassion; they placed value on their caring roles and involvement in people’s lives.

People were supported to maintain good food and fluid intake, and staff were familiar with people’s preferences and any specialist dietary requirements. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service had good working relationships with the local GP practices and health and social care professionals. The service worked in partnership with people and their relatives and encouraged feedback on the care provided. Staff told us they enjoyed working for the service and spoke highly of the support and encouragement provided by the registered manager.

People had their care and support needs met by sufficient numbers of suitably trained staff. Staff had access to personal protective equipment and training to prevent the risk of the spread of infection. The registered manager and deputy manager completed quality audits including home visits to review people’s medicines management and staff performance.

We received consistently positive feedback about the standards of care provided, and the support given to people and their relatives by the staff.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was Good (last report published 12 October 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: 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.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk