Archived: Managed Care Limited

Updated 4 April 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 was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Service and service type: Managed Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Some of these people have a learning disability and others are older people. At the time of our inspection they were providing personal care to eight people.

The provider was also the day to day manager of the service and they were registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they 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 because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Inspection site visit activity started on 4 March 2019 and ended on 7 March 2019. We visited the office location on 4 and 7 March 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did: We visited four people in their homes on the first day of the inspection and spoke with four staff. We spoke on the telephone to two relatives and one further staff member. We spoke to the provider and reviewed records relating to the running of the service. These included three care plans, medicines records, staffing rotas, training records, three staff files and records relating to the monitoring of the service.

Updated 4 April 2019

About the service: Managed Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection eight people were being supported by the service.

People’s experience of using this service: People and relatives praised the service they received from Managed Care Limited and said they were treated with kindness, compassion and respect. One person told us, “They are kindness itself.” A relative commented, “They [staff] are really quite special.”

We received positive feedback on how staff went over and beyond what they were expected to in order to provide a truly person-centred service.

People told us they felt safe and supported by staff who visited them. Staff knew how to recognise and report abuse and were confident any concerns raised would be responded to by the provider. Risk assessments were in place to ensure people’s safety. Recruitment procedures were in place to ensure the service employed suitable staff.

Staff were punctual and consistent at carrying out visits with people in a person-centred manner. One person told us, “They are pretty good with timings, they really are.” People were supported to continue living at home in a way that enabled them to be as independent as possible.

Risks to people were assessed and staff had a good understanding of how to mitigate any risks.

People’s medicines were administered by staff who had received training and competency checks to ensure they were competent to carry out the task. One person’s medicine had not been consistently administered in line with the prescribers instructions and dated when it was opened. We discussed this with the provider who told us they would address this.

Staff were trained and supported to be effective carers in a collaborative team. Staff supervision was not always recorded formally. The provider told us they would record this in the future.

Where needed, staff were quick to support people to have access to health care professionals such as GPs, district nurses and emergency services if required.

Care plans were created with people and relatives to ensure they were person centred and tailored to peoples’ needs and routines. Some of the care plans required additional information to enable an unfamiliar staff member to support them. Staff working for the service knew people, their needs and preferences very well.

People and relatives told us the service was responsive to their needs. One person told us, “I can’t rate them highly enough. All along they have been pushing me forwards and seeing things in advance, they are very positive.”

People, their relatives and staff were complimentary of the provider and their management of the service. The provider worked closely with people, relatives and staff and continually monitored the service.

More information can be seen in the main body of the report for each Key Question below.

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published October 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. At this inspection we found that the quality of service good.

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.

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