Archived: Aspire Community Care & Support

Updated 22 March 2019

The inspection:

• We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

• The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type:

• Aspire Community Care & Support is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community.

• 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:

• Our inspection was announced.

• The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

• Our inspection process commenced on 5 March 2019 and concluded on 5 March 2019. It included visiting the service's office and telephoning people who used the service and their relatives. We visited the office location on 5 March 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff, and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

• Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public and the local authority. We checked records held by Companies House.

• The provider had completed a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

• We spoke with one person who used the service and two relatives.

• We spoke with the registered manager, the care supervisor, the care coordinator and three care workers.

• We reviewed three people's care records, three staff personnel files, staff training documents, and other records about the management of the service.

Updated 22 March 2019

About the service:

• Aspire Community Care & Support is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to the whole population. Not everyone using Aspire Community Care & Support receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

• The provider had one domiciliary care agency within their registration.

• At the time of the inspection it was providing a service to six people.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People were protected against avoidable harm, abuse, neglect and discrimination. The care they received was safe.

• People's risks were assessed and strategies put in place to reduce the risks.

• People's likes, preferences and dislikes were assessed and care packages met people's desired expectations.

• People and their relatives provided positive feedback about the care, staff and management. They said the service was caring, timely, effective and well-led.

•People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

• People's care was person-centred. The care was designed to ensure people's independence was encouraged and maintained.

• People and their relatives were involved in the care planning and review of their care.

• The service had a stable management structure. The provider had implemented systems to ensure they continuously measured the safety of people's care and quality of the service.

Rating at last inspection:

• Requires Improvement (report published on 18 January 2018)

Why we inspected:

• All services rated "requires improvement" are re-inspected within one year of our prior inspection.

• This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

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