Blossom Home Care Ltd

Updated 4 July 2019

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: The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type: The service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. Not everyone using Blossom Home Care Ltd receives a regulated activity. The Care Quality Commission (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. We needed to be sure the registered manager would be at the office.

Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 15 May 2019. We visited the office location on 15 May 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures. We spoke with people and relatives on 16 – 21 May 2019.

What we did before the inspection: We reviewed information we held about the service. We contacted the local authority contracts and safeguarding teams for any information they held about the service. We also contacted Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used their feedback to inform the planning of this inspection.

The registered manager completed a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection: We spoke with seven people, six relatives, the registered manager, care coordinator, recruitment officer, senior care worker and three care workers. The recruitment officer sent an email we had composed to all 28 staff employed at the service asking for their feedback about working at Blossom Home Care Ltd. We also spoke with the account manager for an external training organisation which the provider used. We looked at three people’s care plans and information relating to staff training, recruitment and the management of the service.

Updated 4 July 2019

About the service: Blossom Home Care Ltd is a family run domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the Northallerton, Darlington, Richmond, Middlesbrough and surrounding areas. All of the people that received care from the provider were privately funded. There were 56 people using the service at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service: At our previous inspection we identified shortfalls in the management of risk and the provider’s governance system. At this inspection, we found that improvements had been made.

People and relatives were positive about the care which was provided. One relative told us, “They have been wonderful – without them my mother would not be at home.” Staff talked about caring for people like members of their family. They told us they would be happy for a friend or relative to use the service because of the standard of care provided. Several people and relatives considered that, at times, communication with office staff could be improved. We passed this feedback to the registered manager for their information.

People told us that they felt safe with the staff who supported them. Staff were knowledgeable about the action they would take if abuse was suspected.

There was an ongoing recruitment programme in place. Most people told us that they saw the same care staff, although there were occasions when different care workers attended the call. Care visits were at least 50 minutes long which helped enable staff to provide person-centred care which was responsive to people’s needs.

A range of audits and checks were carried out to assess the quality and safety of the service. Our findings at this inspection confirmed that an effective quality monitoring system was now in place.

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

Rating at last inspection: Requires improvement (last report published 21 May 2018).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.