Archived: Relatives Relief Limited

Updated 14 March 2020

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

Relatives Relief is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to adults and older people with varying needs living within their own homes.

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

This inspection took place on the 28 January 2020 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours' notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to ensure that someone was present at the office.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about and we sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During our inspection visit we visited the site office and spoke to one member of care staff, two office coordinators, the deputy manager and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. These included five people’s care and medication records. We also looked at six staff files including supervision records, records relating to the management of the service and a variety of policies and procedures developed and implemented by the provider. We looked at records relating to recruitment, training and systems for monitoring quality.

After the first day of the inspection we spoke with four people using the service and three relatives to ask about their experience of the care provided by telephone to seek clarification and validate the evidence we found.

Updated 14 March 2020

About the service

Relatives Relief is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care and support to adults and older people living within 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. At the time of our inspection there were 41 people using the service in receipt of personal care.

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 24 January 2019) and whist there were no breaches of regulation we made several recommendations in relation to medicines best practice, staff training, the mental capacity act and its application and strengthening of quality audit processes. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made.

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

The quality and safety of the service had improved since our last inspection. The registered manager ensured the required actions were taken and improvements were made in line with their improvement plan.

People and their relatives spoke positively about staff and told us they were happy with the service they received. People told us they felt safe and had not experienced any abuse, neglect or discrimination. People were protected from the risk of avoidable harm because risks were identified, assessed and managed safely by staff.

People's medicines were safely managed, and people were protected from the risk of infections. Lessons were learnt from accidents and incidents. There were sufficient staff available to support people's needs and appropriate robust recruitment practices were in place.

Staff were supported through induction, training and supervision to ensure they had the knowledge and skills to support people safely. People were supported where this was part of their plan of care to meet their nutrition and hydration needs.

People had access to healthcare services and staff worked in partnership with health and social care professionals. 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 staff that were kind and caring. People were involved in making decisions about their care and support needs and had choice and control over their lives. People's privacy and dignity was respected, and their independence promoted.

People told us they knew how to make a complaint. People's communication needs were assessed and met and people were provided with information in a format that met their needs. There were now systems in place to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service and to continuously learn and drive improvements.

The service worked in partnership with key organisations to plan and deliver an effective 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 24 January 2019). At this inspection enough, improvement had been made/sustained, and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation or the recommendations made. The service is therefore rated good at this inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.