Archived: Charter Care (West Midlands) Limited (B69) Also known as Charter Care Sandwell

Updated 14 May 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

The Inspection team consisted of one inspector, an assistant inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

Service and service type:

Charter Care is a Domiciliary Care Service that is registered to provide care for people within their own homes. People using the service are older people, people with mental health needs, people who misuse drugs and alcohol and those with a physical disability or sensory impairment. 140 people were using the service at the time of the inspection.

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:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit to be sure that the manager and staff would be available.

What we did:

Inspection site visit activity started on 08 April 2019 and ended on 08 April 2019. We visited the office location on 08 April 2019 to see the registered manager and office staff and to review care records and policies and procedures. The expert by experience made telephone calls to people using the service on 09 April 2019.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since they were registered with us. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as allegations of abuse and we sought feedback from the local authority and other professionals who work with the service. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once 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.

We spoke with six people that used the service and three relatives to gather their views on the service being delivered. We also spoke with three staff members, the registered manager and a member of the administration team. We used this information to form part of our judgement.

We looked at four people’s care records to see how their care and treatment was planned and delivered. Other records looked at included four recruitment files to check suitable staff members were recruited and received appropriate training. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service along with a selection of the provider’s policies and procedures, to ensure people received a good quality service. Details are in the ‘Key Questions’ below.

Updated 14 May 2019

About the service:

Charter Care is a Domiciliary Care Service that is registered to provide care for people within their own homes. People using the service are older people, people with mental health needs, people who misuse drugs and alcohol and those with a physical disability or sensory impairment. 140 people were using the service at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

Staff were not always recruited in a safe way.

People's care plans did not always reflect the needs and preferences of people and were limited in the information they provided.

Audits were not comprehensive enough to provide a consistent overview of people’s care.

People were supported by staff to remain safe. There were enough staff available to people and people’s needs were attended to in a timely manner.

Risk assessments were in place to minimise any potential risk to people’s wellbeing. People received their medicines as expected.

Staff knew people’s needs. Staff received training and had been provided with an induction, and felt able to approach the registered manager with any concerns. People were assisted to receive nutrition and hydration by staff. People were supported to maintain their health.

People were supported to have choice and control over their lives and staff understood that they should support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff ensured that people’s privacy and dignity was maintained.

Complaints were dealt with appropriately in line with the complaints procedure. People felt able to go to staff who would listen to them.

Rating at last inspection: The rating for the service at our last inspection was ‘Good’ with our last report published on 06 October 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection that was due based on our scheduling targets. We had also received some information of concern from the local authority regarding a specific incident around medicines not being given where required. We spoke with the registered manager about this and received their perspective on the incident. The registered manager had taken some learning from the incident and the person was no longer using the service.

At the last inspection the key question of Well led was rated ‘requires improvement’. This was due to concerns that there was no effective structure for staff supervisions and audits were not comprehensive. At this inspection we found that whilst staff now received regular supervisions, audits still required some improvements in providing an overview of patterns and trends.

Enforcement:

No enforcement action was required.

Follow up:

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