Be Caring Newcastle

Be Caring Tyneside is a large domiciliary care agency. Between December 2021 and February 2022, they supported 423 people each day. There are four distinct parts to the service, each with its own manager. They provide care and support to people living in their own homes; complex and palliative care; supported living schemes for people with a learning disability and/or autism and a short-term service primarily for people with autism.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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

Most people received care when they needed it. Care plans contained information relevant to people’s needs. Some risk assessments, related to the homecare service, were also either missing or did not contain sufficient information about how to keep people safe.

The provider had a structured approach to quality assurance. However, this had not always been effective in chasing up issues with risk assessments. There was a lack of management oversight of the COVID-19 testing arrangements to provide the required reassurance that staff were testing in line with Government guidance. The provider was implementing systems to address this.

People and relatives gave mostly positive feedback about their care and praised the staff providing it. They told us they felt safe accessing the service. They also knew how to raise concerns, if required.

Safeguarding concerns were reported and investigated. Staff knew how to raise concerns and felt confident to do so. Incidents and accidents were also investigated and action taken as a result. Medicines were handled safely, and the provider had effective recruitment practices.

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.

People’s needs had been assessed and this formed a baseline for developing their care plans. Staff had access to regular supervision and relevant training. However, not all staff said they felt supported. Staff supported people to have enough to eat and drink and to attend healthcare appointments, when required.

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.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Staff supported people to make choices and decisions about their care. People told us they were enabled to be as independent as possible. There were positive relationships between people and staff, with people confirming they were treated well and were involved in their care.

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 the service under the previous provider and premises was good, published on 17 June 2019.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.