Dolphin Care (IOW) Limited

Updated 12 May 2022

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

This inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

Dolphin Care (IOW) Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 April 2022 and ended on 04 May 2022. We visited the location’s office on 25 April 2022.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we reviewed the information, we had received about the service, including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service are legally required to send us. We sort feedback from the local authority and professionals involved with the service.

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service about their experience of the care provided and received feedback from three relatives. We spoke with four members of staff including the provider, who was also the nominated individual, the registered manager and care staff. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We received feedback from one social care professional.

We reviewed a range of records, including five people's care records and two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We looked at records in relation to the management of the service, such as policies and procedure and training data.

Updated 12 May 2022

About the service

Dolphin Care (IOW) Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. 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. There were 14 people being provided with personal care at the time of our inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People told us they received safe care. Staff knew each person well and understood their needs. People were supported by staff in a safe way and risks were assessed, managed and monitored. People received their medicines as prescribed and infection control risks were managed effectively.

There were sufficient numbers of consistent staff available to meet people's needs. People spoke positively about the quality of the care they received.

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 were supported by caring, well trained staff that had been subject to a recruitment and induction process.

Staff supported people to access healthcare professionals when they needed them.

The registered manager kept in regular contact with people by visiting them in their homes, checking if they were happy with the service they received and if any changes were needed. People and staff felt confident to raise any concerns or suggestions to the registered manager.

The registered manager was open and transparent. They understood their regulatory responsibilities. A quality assurance system was in place to continually assess, monitor and improve the service.

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 requires improvement (published 3 September 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by the length of time since the last inspection and the previous rating of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dolphin Care (IOW) Limited 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.