York Branch

Updated 23 August 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

This 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.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

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

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be available to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 29 June 2022 and ended on 6 July 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since they registered with the CQC. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 any improvements they plan to male. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as video calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation.

We spoke to three people who use the service and three staff, including the registered manager. We reviewed three people’s care and support plans, risk assessments and medicines records. We looked at three staff recruitment records, staff training records and a range of audits and quality checks carried out by the registered manager and provider.

Updated 23 August 2022

About the service

York Branch is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people in their own home. The service mostly provides support to older people. At the time of our inspection there was 40 people 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.

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

People felt safe and received person centred care from trained staff who knew them well. People told us staff respected their right to privacy and felt they were able to live independently due to the support staff provided. People were protected from the risk of harm and had individual risk assessments and care plans in place. The registered manager and provider carried out checks to monitor, review and improve the safety and quality of the service.

Staff told us they felt supported in their role and felt that the registered manager was approachable to discuss any concerns. Staff worked in partnership with other health and social professionals to ensure people received the support they required. Staff received training and an induction to ensure they could meet people's needs safely.

There were enough staff to support people safely. Staff ensured people were protected from the risk of infection by following infection control guidance.

People were supported to visit health and social care professionals to ensure health conditions they lived with were managed.

People and their relatives told us staff were caring and compassionate. People were encouraged to share their views on the care provided.

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.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group .

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 10 October 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date the provider registered the service.

Follow up

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

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology.’ This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.