Background to this inspection
Updated
16 December 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 team consisted of 1 inspector.
Service and service type
This service provides care and support to people living in 1 ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. It also provides short term therapy led support to people leaving hospital or after being unwell in their own homes. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.
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 manager in post whose application to be registered had been submitted to CQC.
Notice of inspection
The inspection was announced. We gave 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We visited the location’s office on 4 December 2023.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with 7 people about their experience of the care provided. We visited the office location and the supported living service. We spoke with the manager, 2 team leaders, 4 coordinators and 6 support workers. We looked at written records, which included 6 people’s care and medicine records and 2 staff files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were also reviewed.
Updated
16 December 2023
About the service
Darlington In House Homecare is a reablement and supported living service providing personal care to people. The service provides support to adults of all ages. People using the reablement service were supported for up to 6 weeks with therapy led support following hospitalisation or injury. The service also supported 3 people with a learning disability living in their own home. At the time of our inspection there were 37 people using the service.
People’s experience of the service and what we found:
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.
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 Support:
Medicines were given safely by trained and competent staff. The service had plans and guidance to support people with identified risks. Care was person centred and promoted choice and independence. People were supported to achieve positive outcomes. People were supported by staff who received an induction and ongoing training.
Right Care:
People received kind and compassionate care. Feedback from people was all positive, staff knew people well, understood and responded to their individual needs. Staff promoted and respected people's right to privacy, dignity, and respect. Staff knew how to protect people from the risk of harm and abuse.
Right Culture:
The manager listened to concerns and promoted a positive culture that was person-centred, open, and inclusive. Staff were supported and given opportunities to feedback about the service. Quality assurance processes enabled continuous improvement. As the manager had not been in post long some systems and processes were still in development, but plans were in place and being acted on.
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 on 3 November 2018.
Why we inspected
We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Darlington In House Homecare 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.