Mobile Care

Updated 26 March 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

One adult social care inspector carried out this inspection.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone using this service receives 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 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 the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit to be sure the registered manager would be available to speak with us. We also requested to pre-arrange home visits to meet with people who used the service.

This inspection took place on the 05 and 11 March 2019. On the first day of our inspection we visited the office and also visited two people, with their permission, at their homes. On the second day we spoke with people supported by the service and staff by telephone.

What we did:

Before our inspection we completed our planning tool and reviewed the information we held on the service. This included notifications we had received from the provider, about incidents that affect the health, safety and welfare of people supported by the service and previous inspection reports.

During the inspection we spoke with four people who were supported by Mobile Care and two relatives. We spoke with four members of staff, the registered manager and nominated individual.

To gather information, we looked at a variety of records. This included care plan records related to three people who used the service. We also looked at other information related to the management of the service. We did this to ensure the management team had oversight of the service and they could respond to any concerns highlighted or lead Mobile Care in ongoing improvements.

Updated 26 March 2019

About the service:

This service is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our visit 49 people were being supported by Mobile Care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they were supported by staff who knew and consistently met their needs. Staffing levels were continuously reviewed to ensure there were enough staff to provide a flexible and responsive care. People told us the carers were reliable however we did receive mixed comments about the punctuality of calls on occasions. We have made a recommendation about this.

Procedures were in place to record safeguarding concerns, accidents and incidents and take necessary action as required. We saw the management team had cooperated and worked in partnership with the local authority when safeguarding concerns had been brought to their attention. People told us they felt safe with the support they received from the staff.

People’s care and support had been planned proactively and in partnership with them. People felt consulted and listened to about how their care would be delivered. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible.

The service worked in partnership with healthcare professionals and families to ensure people’s health care needs were met. Care plan information focused on a person-centred method of supporting people. Also, information contained what support was required.

People supported by the service and their relatives consistently told us the management and staff who supported them were polite, reliable, caring and professional in their approach to their work.

People and relatives said individuals using Mobile Care experienced positive outcomes. We reviewed compliments received by the service and saw people and family members had repeatedly praised the service for the improvements made to people’s lives.

The service had a complaints procedure which was made available to people and their family when they commenced using the service. The management team worked proactively to ensure individual concerns were identified and acted upon before they became a complaint.

The registered provider used a variety of methods to assess and monitor the quality of the service. This enabled the service to be monitored and improve areas that were identified through their quality monitoring processes.

More information is in the detailed findings below.

Rating at last inspection:

At the last comprehensive inspection the service was rated overall as Good.

Why we inspected:

This inspection was a scheduled comprehensive inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

The next scheduled inspection will be in keeping with the overall rating. We will continue to monitor information we receive from and about the service. We may inspect sooner if we receive concerning information about the service.

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