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Firstpoint Homecare Darlington

Office 1.03 Darlington Business Central, 2 Union Square, Central Park, Darlington, DL1 1GL (01325) 290008

Provided and run by:
Firstpoint Homecare Limited

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

Inspection summaries and ratings at previous address

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 4 January 2024

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

The inspection team consisted of 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people who use the service and their relatives following the office site visit.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

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

Notice of inspection

The inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the service provides care and support in people’s own homes. 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 November 2023 and ended on 24 November 2023. We visited the office location on 22 November 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We looked at information we held about the service such as notifications we had received from the registered manager. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We sought feedback from the local authority contract monitoring team prior to our visit. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection site visit we looked at a range of documents and records related to people’s care and the management of the service. We viewed 6 people's care and medication records, 2 staff recruitment files and a selection of records used to monitor the quality and safety of the service.

We had discussions with the registered manager and operations director who was also the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service.

After the inspection site visit, we contacted 9 people who used the service and 5 relatives to ask their views on the service provided. We also contacted 6 members of staff.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 4 January 2024

About the service

Firstpoint Homecare Darlington is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to predominantly older people living in their own houses and flats in and around the Darlington and Northallerton area. At the time of this inspection, 47 people were using the service.

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. At the time of this inspection, 38 people who were using the service were in receipt of personal care.

People’s experience of the service and what we found:

People spoke highly of the staff team and the quality of care they provided. People felt safe and were confident in raising any concerns. Staff had access to the relevant personal protective equipment (PPE) and people told us this was appropriately used during care visits.

Safe recruitment processes were in place and followed. People were supported by a consistent team of staff. People were aware of which care staff were due to come to their visits and the expected time.

Medicines were managed safely. Staff had received appropriate training and had their competencies assessed to ensure they were following best practice guidance. Records in relation to topical medicines, such as creams, did not always clearly state where the medicine was to be applied. We have made a recommendation about this.

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.

The registered manager had effective oversight of the service. Quality assurance processes were in place and used to monitor and improve the quality of care. People told us they were asked to provide feedback and felt their preferences and views were listened to. Staff spoke highly of the registered manager and their support and commitment to 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 Good (published 1 August 2018)

Why we inspected

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

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Firstpoint Homecare Darlington on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation about the recording of medicines.

Follow Up

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