All inspections: Birmingham Business Associate Limited

This inspection took place on 8 March 2016 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice that we would be visiting the service. This was because the service provides domiciliary care to people living in their own homes and we wanted to make sure staff would be available. At our last inspection in March 2015, the provider was found to be requiring improvement. This included recruitment checks, safe management of people’s medicines and ineffective systems in place to encourage feedback from people. We re-inspected the service within 12 months as this is the standard set by CQC and found there had been improvements made to these areas.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons. 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 provider had made improvements to their quality assurance and audit systems to monitor the care and support people received. However, improvement was required in matching staff with the right skills to meet people’s individual needs. The frequency of staff supervision and spot checks also required some improvement.

People were left safe and secure in their homes. People were kept safe and protected from harm because staff understood their responsibility to take action to protect people. The provider had processes and systems in place that kept people safe and protected them from the risk of harm.

People were involved in planning their care and management of any risks identified in relation to the care they received. People received care and support from staff that were trained and supported to carry out their roles.

People were supported by staff that had been safely recruited. People were supported with their medication by staff that had received appropriate training.

People and relatives felt staff had the skills and knowledge to care and support people in their homes. Where appropriate, people were supported to access health and social care professionals.

The provider was taking the appropriate action to protect people’s rights to ensure their liberty was not being restricted.

People and relatives felt the staff was caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People felt their independence was respected and promoted and staff responded to people’s support needs.

People and relatives felt they could speak with the provider about worries or concerns and felt they would be listened to and have their concerns addressed.

The inspection took place on 3 March 2015 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours notice that we would be visiting the service. This was because the service provides domiciliary care and we wanted to make sure staff would be available at their office. This is the provider’s first inspection.

Birmingham Business Associate Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. The service currently provides care and support for nine people, most of whom are older people. The registered manager had resigned in January 2015 from the service and the provider was in the process of recruiting a replacement. In the interim, the provider was acting as a temporary manager and had also engaged the services of a private consultant, to assist with developing and managing the service in order to make improvement where needed. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. 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.

We found that suitable arrangements were not in place to ensure staff was effectively supporting people to take their prescribed medicines.

There was a recruitment process in place, however the provider had not completed robust pre-employment checks before staff had started to work with people.

People told us they felt safe and secure with staff coming into their homes.

People and relatives told us they were involved in completing risk assessments with the provider before staff came to their homes.

We were told by people and relatives, they felt the staff had the skills and knowledge to care and support people in their homes.

People were supported by staff to access other health and social care professionals when needed.

People and relatives told us that staff were caring and treated people with dignity and respect.

People and relatives told us that staff responded to people’s support needs.

Effective systems were not in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided to people.

Birmingham Business Associate Limited was suspended from receiving any new services by the local authority in March 2015. The local authority concerns were about the resignation of the registered manager, the ineffective management practices and a number of safeguarding alerts. The provider had drawn up an improvement action plan in response to the local authority.

Archived: Birmingham Business Associate Limited

All Inspections

8 March 2016

During a routine inspection

3 March 2015

During a routine inspection