The Care Quality Commission
  • Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Archived: Egerton House

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

55 Hoole Road, Chester, Cheshire, CH2 3NJ (01244) 318348

Provided and run by:
When the Flag Drops Limited

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile

All Inspections

1 June 2017

During a routine inspection

We visited this service on 1 June 2017. We gave 48 hours notice to the service that we were visiting. This was to ensure that people were available at the office on the first day of our visit.

Bluebird Care UK is a national franchise. A franchise is when a franchisee (the provider) has bought the right to sell a specific company's (the franchisor's) products in a particular area using the company's name. The franchise operates over two hundred locations across the United Kingdom.

Bluebird Care, Egerton House is registered to provide personal care to people who use the service. They provide care in people’s own homes. They currently provide support for 97 adults within the local community.

At the last inspection on 2 February 2015, the service was rated as Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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.

People were supported by staff who had been trained to understood how to recognise abuse and discrimination. Systems were in place for staff to follow which protected people and kept them safe from avoidable danger and harm. Staff were confident in reporting any concerns they had about a person's safety.

People received care and support from staff that were trained to be effective in their role. Staff had the skills and knowledge to understand and support people's individual needs. Training they received was kept up to date. People's rights were protected and they had choices in their daily lives. People were supported to maintain their diet and health needs where required. Staff were caring and people's privacy, dignity independence and individuality was respected and promoted by staff.

People received care from staff that were suitably recruited, supported and in sufficient numbers to ensure people's needs were met. This was because the provider had undertaken the relevant checks to ensure the staff they employed were suitable to work with people.

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. Staff asked people's permission before they helped them with any care or support and understood the importance of obtaining consent. People that needed it received support to make sure they ate and drank enough. Staff helped people to access healthcare services when this was required.

People were supported by staff who knew them well and had good relationships with them. People were involved in their own care and felt listened to when they made their wishes known. Staff protected and respected people's dignity and privacy when they supported them. People received care and support that was individual to their needs and preferences.

People and their relatives knew how to complain about the service and felt comfortable about doing so.

The provider carried out annual satisfaction surveys with people using the service. The registered manager had systems for monitoring the quality of the service and had taken action when improvements were needed.

29 January and 2 February 2015

During a routine inspection

We visited this service on 29 January and 2 February 2015 and we gave short notice to the service that we were visiting. This was to ensure that people were available at the office on the first day of our visit. This was the first inspection of this service, which was registered with the Care Quality Commission on 27 March 2014.

Egerton House is registered to provide personal care to people who use the service. They provide care in people’s own homes. They currently provide support for 64 adults within the local community, including Parkgate, Chester and Neston.

The service has a registered manager in place. 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.

People told us that they were happy with the staff at Egerton House and they felt that the staff understood their care needs. People commented “The staff are very pleasant”, “The carers are good. Very nice girls”, “Staff are very good and friendly” and “The staff are very nice and do anything I need.” One person said “The service is doing what I need at present.” People confirmed that staff stayed for the length of time allocated and usually arrived on time. On occasions where a call had been missed it was usually due to staff sickness. People explained that they were usually contacted by the office and either a staff member called later or the call was cancelled by mutual consent. All the people we spoke to had no complaints about the service. The relatives we spoke with were satisfied with the care and support of their family members by the staff at Egerton House.

We found that people, where possible, were involved in decisions about their care and support. Staff made appropriate referrals on behalf of people who used the service, to others such as the GP, where it had been identified that there were changes in someone’s health needs. During discussions with the staff we saw that they understood people’s care and support needs, and the staff member we observed was kind and thoughtful towards the person and treated them with respect.

The care records contained detailed information about the support people required and were written in a way that recognised people’s needs. This meant that the person was put at the centre of what was being described. The records we saw were completed and up to date.

The provider had systems in place to ensure that people were protected from the risk of potential harm or abuse. We saw there were policies and procedures in place to guide staff in relation to safeguarding adults. Therefore staff had documents available to them to help them understand the risk of potential harm or abuse of people who used the service.

Good recruitment practices were in place which included the completion of pre-employment checks prior to a new member of staff working at the service. Therefore people who used Egerton House could be confident that they were protected from staff that were known to be unsuitable.