Unique Senior Care Coventry

Updated 19 October 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. 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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own home.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered manager, together with the provider 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 service 72 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 September 2019 and ended on 23 September 2019. We visited the office location on the 19 and 23 September 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and sought feedback from the local authority. 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.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people who used the service and four relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with four members of staff known as ‘caregivers’, a care supervisor, the registered manager, the acting Director of Operations, the Director of People, the Learning and Development Manager and the Brand Ambassador. We also spoke with two other directors of the provider company, one of whom was the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of data and records. This included five people’s care and medication records and variety of records relating to the management of the service such as quality assurance, training and recruitment.

Updated 19 October 2019

About the service

Unique Senior Care Coventry is a domiciliary care service. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 43 people with the regulated activity personal care. People receiving support from the service were adults or older people. Some people were living with dementia. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

The provider continued to be passionate about building an outcome focused service which helped people achieve their goals and priorities. They had an extremely proactive attitude to the training and development of staff who were enthusiastic in their desire to provide the best quality care to people. The provider remained committed to sharing learning and developing best practice. They had introduced new initiatives since our last inspection to ensure the drive to improve the service and provide people with positive outcomes was maintained.

There continued to be a very strong person-centred culture at all levels within Unique Senior Care Coventry. Treating people with dignity and respect and promoting independence was at the heart of caregivers working practices. People were supported to express their views and make their preferences known.

People's needs, and preferences were thoroughly assessed before they received support from the service and were reflective of the Equality Act 2010. Caregivers described their training as excellent and said it gave them the competencies to meet people's assessed needs effectively. Caregivers monitored people’s health conditions and ensured people they supported with meals had enough to eat and drink to maintain their health.

Each person had a plan of care which focussed on their personal preferences, routines and social needs. Where possible people were matched to a caregiver who had a shared common interest or hobby and shared their enthusiasms. Caregivers had received training and worked closely with community-based health professionals to provide consistent care when people were at the end of their life.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and caregivers supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. The views of people, their relatives and caregivers remained central to driving forward improvement and service development.

Risks to people's health and safety had been identified and caregivers understood their role in keeping people safe. People were protected from the risks of infection and their medicines were handled safely. When things went wrong, lessons were learned and shared across the service.

For more details 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 Outstanding (published 28 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.