Background to this inspection
Updated
30 December 2021
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 two inspectors and two Expert’s by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experiences 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.
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 a short period of notice for the inspection. This was because 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
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. 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 ten people who used the service and eight relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eleven members of staff including the provider and registered manager, training manager, operational manager, care co-ordinators and care workers.
We reviewed a range of records. This included nine people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at eight staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, quality assurance records, further policies and rotas and call logs. We spoke with one professional who is in regular contact with the service.
Updated
30 December 2021
About the service
Homecare For You Bolton is a domiciliary care agency, registered to provide personal care to people of all ages. At the time of inspection, the service was providing support to 180 people across areas in Bolton, Rochdale and Bury.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and their relatives reported feeling safe when receiving care. Staff wore PPE appropriately and showed a good understanding of donning and doffing, including how used PPE should be disposed of. Staff reported having access to PPE stock and said this was plentiful. Medication was managed safely, with staff receiving training and the provider carrying out competency checks. Staffing levels had remained manageable despite staff leaving caring roles; the provider had increased hourly rates for carers and recognised the difficulties they faced in recruiting new staff. We recommend the provider continues to try and recruit new staff and promote roles within the care team.
The provider demonstrated assessments relating to people’s care were person centred. Risks associated with the provision of people’s care were clearly identified and guidance was provided for staff to follow. The provider actively promoted a staff team made up of people from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds; this was done specifically to meet cultural needs of people.
Staff received an induction programme and there were robust systems in place for ongoing training, competency checks and assessments of staff knowledge. When the training manager identified gaps in staff’s knowledge a support programme was implemented.
We found there was sufficient audits and oversight systems in place. However, there were areas where increased detail would benefit the providers oversight. The provider had begun to address this before we inspected and was implementing an electronic data system which would increase daily oversight, enable the provider to respond in real time and provide detail for audits to be carried out regularly.
People and relatives felt carers were responsive to their needs and reported that they felt in control of their care. Feedback relating to people, relatives and staff being able to contact the office or on-call, was mixed. Some people reported having no issues contacting the office and some explained they were unable to speak with anyone and concerns were not always followed up. We discussed this with the registered manager following the inspection and they explained they would implement extra on call contact numbers, create a new schedule for on-call that meant two staff members could be contacted and build in checking messages people had left into the daily tasks for co-ordinators. We have recommended that these systems are implemented in a timely manner.
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 (and update)
The last rating for this service was Good (published 19 September 2021).
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Homecare For You - Bolton on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.