We carried out a review of the data available to us about Corporate Care Furness Limited on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Corporate Care Furness Limited, you can give feedback on this service.
At the time of the inspection, the location did not provide 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.
About the service
Corporate Care Furness Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The service supports people living in Barrow, Ulverston and the surrounding areas of South Cumbria. There were 50 people receiving personal care when we inspected.
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
Right Support: Staff gave people choices about their care and promoted people’s control of their lives and independence. They gave people support, as they needed, to make decisions about their care. 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.
Right Care: People received kind and compassionate care from a small team of staff who knew them well. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.
Right Culture: The registered manager was committed to providing people with person-centred care which promoted positive outcomes. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. People valued the support they received and told us they would recommend the service.
People were protected from avoidable harm. The registered manager had identified potential risks to people’s safety and staff were trained in how to provide care in a safe way. There were enough staff to support people. Staff gave people the support they needed to take their medicines. People were protected from the risk of infection. Staff were trained in infection prevention and control and used appropriate personal protective equipment. The registered manager had systems to ensure lessons were learned from any incidents and shared with the staff team to ensure people’s safety.
The registered manager had asked people for their views and used their feedback to further improve the service. Staff worked effectively with other services which supported people, to ensure people received the care they needed and experienced positive outcomes. The registered manager was very experienced and aware of their legal responsibilities. They were committed to the continuous improvement of the 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 good, (report published 27 September 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
The service had not been subject to any formal regulatory review since the inspection in 2018. We undertook a focused inspection to seek assurance people continued to receive safe, high-quality care.
We reviewed the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Corporate Care Furness Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
At our last inspection of this service between September 2015 and November 2015 we assessed the overall rating to be good. However, we assessed the key question of safe to be requires improvement. At this inspection between 1 June 2018 and 26 July 2018 the rating for the key question of safe had improved to good. We found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.
At this inspection we found the service remained Good.
At our inspection between September 2015 and November 2015 we found a breach of legal requirements because the registered provider had not ensured that medicines were managed safely. We had shared the concerns we found with the registered manager during our inspection and she ensured all staff received updated training in the safe handling of medicines while we were carrying out the inspection.
During this inspection in June and July 2018 we found medicines were handled safely and clear records were kept of the support staff had provided to people with their medicines.
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to people who need support due to physical needs, people who have dementia and people who have a learning disability. The service is provided in Barrow-in-Furness and the surrounding areas.
Not everyone using Corporate Care Furness Limited receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. There were 101 people receiving regulated activity at the time we carried out our inspection.
People received the support they needed to stay in their own homes. The staff treated people with kindness and respect and people valued the support they received.
People were safe and protected from abuse and avoidable harm.
There were enough staff to provide the support people required. The staff were trained to give them the skills and knowledge to provide people’s care.
People were included in agreeing to the care they received. Care was planned and provided to meet people’s needs.
The service was responsive to people’s needs and wishes. Where people requested changes to their planned care these were agreed.
The staff supported people to maintain their independence and protected their dignity.
People were treated with respect. They made choices about their care and the staff respected the decisions people made. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People received the support they needed to maintain their health.
There were arrangements to ensure the effective management of the service. The registered manager monitored the quality of the service and took action to further improve the service provided.
The registered manager had a procedure for receiving and responding to complaints. People who used the service and their families knew the registered manager and were confident contacting her as they needed.
We carried out this announced inspection between 24 September and 9 November 2015. We last inspected this service in April 2013. At that inspection we found the service was meeting all of the regulations that we assessed.
Corporate Care Furness Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing care for people who live in Barrow-in-Furness and the surrounding area. The agency provides care to people in their own homes, including people who need support due to physical needs, people who have dementia and people who have a learning disability.
There was a registered manager employed at the service. 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
Everyone we spoke with told us that this was a good service and said they would recommend it to other people.
Most people told us that the staff who supported them knew how to provide their care. However we found that people had not always received their medicines safely. We shared our concerns with the registered manager and they ensured all staff received updated training in the safe handling of medicines while we were carrying out this inspection.
People were treated with kindness and respect and were included in all decisions about their care. Care staff knew how to protect people’s privacy and supported people to maintain their independence.
People who used the service knew the registered manager and were confident that she would take action if they raised any concerns.
People valued the service they received and were supported to remain living in their own homes.
Safe systems were used when new staff were recruited to ensure they were suitable to work in people’s homes.
The registered manager asked people for their views about the care they received and acted in response to their feedback.
We found a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 in relation to the safe handling of medicines.
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.
People told us they had been included in agreeing to the care provided by the agency. They said they could refuse to have any part of their care if they wished. One person said, 'If I'm meant to have a shower one day but I don't feel up to it, that's fine, they staff ask if I'd like help to have a wash and I can have a shower another day, when I'm feeling a bit better.' Everyone we spoke with told us they would recommend the agency to people they knew.
People told us,
'They're brilliant, I wouldn't have anyone else',
'They, [Care staff], always ask what I want',
And said, 'I give them 10 out of 10.'
People told us,
'I can't praise the staff enough, they pass all my tests',
'They, [Care staff], go out of their way to help',
And said, 'I wouldn't be without them.'
We found the records the agency held about people who used the service and the care staff employed did not protect people from the risk of receiving unsafe or inappropriate care.
People told us they received support from a small team of staff who they knew and who were knowledgeable about the support they needed.
People we spoke to said,
'The staff are all very good, you couldn't ask for better.'
'I trust the staff 100% and feel safer for their visiting me.'
'The manager is marvellous ' She listens and tries to respond to any requests I make.'