Background to this inspection
Updated
16 June 2021
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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We visited the office location on 19 May 2021.
What we did before the inspection
We looked at all the information we held about the service including notifications. A notification is information about events that the registered persons are required, by law, to tell us about. The provider was not asked to complete 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. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We also contacted three relatives of people using the service, two staff members and three external professionals to seek their views.
During the inspection
On the day of our office visit we spoke with the registered manager and one staff member. We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and samples of medication records. We looked at one staff personnel file in relation to recruitment and staff support. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and accidents records.
Updated
16 June 2021
About the service
Crystal Caring is a service registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. The service supports younger adults and older people living in and around Swindon area. On the day of our inspection they were supporting 13 people with the regulated activity of personal care, more people received non regulated support such as housekeeping or companionship.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were safe receiving care and support from consistent and safely recruited staff. People were supported to receive their medicines safely and as prescribed. Risks surrounding peoples’ individual conditions had been assessed and regularly reviewed. Staff followed good practice around infection control and had access to personal protective equipment. Staff received training around safeguarding and any safeguarding concerns had been identified, reported and investigated promptly.
The registered manager ensured their quality assurance processes were now embedded in practice. Staff were listened to and told us they were well supported and valued. People were consulted about their views and able to provide feedback through various routes. In the most recent surveys people used words such as ‘wonderful’ and ‘brilliant’ to compliment the team for their hard work. The registered manager ensured their regulatory responsibilities had been met, this included ensuring statutory notifications had been submitted. The team demonstrated an open and transparent approach that put people in the centre of the service delivery.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 31 December 2019). At this inspection we found improvements had been made and we rated both domains we reviewed as good.
Why we inspected
We undertook this focused inspection to check if the provider improved their system and processes. The rating from the previous comprehensive inspection for the key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service is now Good.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Crystal Caring on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.