Archived: 1st Choice Support Services Limited

Updated 12 February 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection was unannounced and took place on the 4 December 2014. Following this announced visits took place to people’s own homes with their consent on the 11 December 2014. Telephone interviews were then carried out with the consent of other people using the service and in addition a sample of staff members were also interviewed via the telephone. These calls took place on the 12 and 16 December 2014.

The inspection was carried out by an adult social care inspector.

Before our inspection the agency provided us with a provider information return [PIR] which allowed us to prepare for the inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make. We looked at any notifications received and reviewed any other information we hold prior to visiting. We also invited the local authority safeguarding, quality assurance and commissioning functions to provide us with any information they held about 1st Choice Support Services Limited.

During our inspection we went to the agency office and spoke to the registered manager and the care coordinator. We reviewed the care records of six people that used the service, reviewed the records for two staff and records relating to the management of the service. This was followed by home visits to two of the people using the service, phone calls to five more people using the service and phone calls to three of the care staff members.

Updated 12 February 2015

This inspection was unannounced and took place over several days between 4 December and 16 December 2014.

The last inspection took place on the 11 and 18 July 2013 when the agency was found to be meeting all the regulatory requirements looked at and which applied to this kind of service.

1st Choice Support Services Limited has a manager registered with the CQC. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The day to day management of the service was carried out by the registered manager and a care coordinator.

1st Choice Support Services Limited is a domiciliary care service providing social care and support services to adults and children across the whole of Halton in order to enable people to remain at home with as much independence as possible or to provide support to families. The service operates from an office in Runcorn Town Centre. At the time of our inspection 17 people were receiving a service from the agency.

Although we did not receive any specific comments regarding their safety all of the people we spoke to told us that they were happy with the service being provided and that they liked the carers that visited them. One person whose son received a service from the agency told us, “I have never felt I can’t leave him with them”.

The people using the service told us that they usually had the same carers, they always stayed for the correct amount of time and they were rarely late. If there was a problem they were contacted to let them know. People were also given a copy of the next week’s rota so that they knew who was coming on each day. One person told us, “They stay the full time, let me know if ever late, rarely happens”.

We asked the people using the service about the agency and the staff members working for it. Everyone who commented said they liked the staff members supporting them. Comments included, “Carers are very good and caring”, They are really good, so polite and easy to get on with”, “Very good, excellent, friendly and efficient. Not intrusive, above and beyond”, “Really happy with them, would not change them”, “Lovely, really good, I am happy with the service” and “My son calls them his friends. They come because they care for X, it isn’t just a job”.

The care folders we looked at in both the office and in people’s own homes were being reviewed regularly so staff knew what changes, if any, had been made. The files we looked at explained how best to support them. This helped to ensure that people’s needs continued to be met.

We found that the provider agency used a variety of methods in order to assess the quality of the service they were providing to people. These included regular ‘spot checks’ on the staff members and the sending of questionnaires to the people using the service.