• Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Archived: Biju Care Limited

The Barracks, White Cross Industrial Estate, South Road, Lancaster, Lancashire, LA1 4XQ (01524) 541700

Provided and run by:
Biju Limited

All Inspections

24 January 2014

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We spoke with a small number of people who received services from the agency, and they explained that they were aware of the way travel times were built in to the contractual arrangements, and they explained that the agency had good systems in place to keep them informed of changes to care staff or if care staff were going to be late. The registered manager explained that a very small number of people had raised concerns about the punctuality of staff undertaking care visits. Despite this number being small, she was concerned that people were dissatisfied. She explained that she had reviewed the ways in which care staff communicated with people. This was to ensure people were informed in good time if staff were going to be late for a visit, or if staff were to be changed.

We found that managers were involved in auditing and monitoring service delivery. We found that care plans were regularly reviewed, medications charts checked on a monthly basis and spot checks made to people's homes to gather information about their experience, and to discuss any concerns.

We checked some of the records relating to complaints monitoring. We found that complaints were recorded on a computer system, and that when managers took action to deal with the complaint, this was recorded on the system. The system was found to provide staff with key performance indicators relating to when they should reply to letters, and undertake investigations.

18 November 2013

During a routine inspection

We inspected this provider by an announced visit at their office in Lancaster , We looked at records held there. We talked with the registered manager for Biju care and with the Continuous Quality Improvement Assessor (CQIA). After the visit we talked with 8 people who used the service.

We found most people thought the service was working well, and individual staff were praised for their helpfulness. People appreciated consistency of care staff. There were some concerns about timeliness, not being kept informed and paying for services not received in full. We saw that records relating to people were comprehensive and up to date. We saw that people or their relatives had signed to consent to the services as detailed in their care plans.

We found that the complaints system was not brought to the attention of people in a manner which was suitable, Information was inaccurate and incomplete. Record keeping about complaints was difficult to make sense of, and the provider was unable to tell us how many complaints about the service had been received.

We checked the recruitment processes used by the provider and found these to be robust in ensuring that people were of good character. We found that the provider conducted audits and surveys of service users, which highlighted areas of good practice and issues of concern. We found that the issues of concern were not always acted on. This meant that the audits were not serving their proper purpose of maintaining standards.

21 September 2012

During a routine inspection

We spoke to five people who use the service. All of them said they had been given information about the service that helped them understand the kind of services available to them. They all believed they were very much involved in the decision making processes relating to the care and support they received. The people we spoke to believed they were receiving good standards of care based on their own needs. The people we spoke to thought they were keep safe by the service, and felt safe using the service. The people we spoke to believed the staff who worked with them were very caring and good at their job. The people we spoke to thought the manager and staff who ran the service were good at keeping them informed of developments, and were interested in their care and support arrangements. If they had issues about the service, the people we spoke felt happy to approaching the management team with a view to raising their concerns.