• Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Archived: Simply Caring Limited - Meridian Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Unit 30c, Meridian Business Centre, King Street, Oldham, Lancashire, OL8 1EZ (0161) 345 2030

Provided and run by:
Simply Caring Limited

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 16 June 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 50 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory function. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on the 21 May 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because we wanted to ensure that someone would be in the office to assist us with the inspection. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector and an assistant inspector from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Before the inspection we looked at previous inspection reports and notifications received from the provider. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We reviewed the Provider Information Record (PIR) before the inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, this tells us what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make. This ensured we were addressing any areas of concern. We also spoke to the local authority and the local Healthwatch, we did not receive any negative comments about the service.

We visited three people who used the service. Following the inspection we spoke with three people who used the service and two relatives. We also spoke with five care staff, the registered manager, two care coordinators and the company administrator. We contacted several health and social care professionals for their view of the service. We looked at six people’s care records, three staff personnel files and a selection of medicine administration records. We reviewed a range of records relating to the management of the service. We also looked at a variety of policies and procedures including safeguarding, complaints, mental capacity and deprivation of liberty, recruitment, accidents and incidents and equality and diversity.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 16 June 2018

This announced inspection was carried out on 21 May 2018. Simply Caring provides support and personal care to people living in their own homes in the Oldham area of Greater Manchester. At the time of the visit there were 53 people using the service who received personal care.

The service has a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 200 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

At our last inspection in March 2017 we found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulation 2014 and a further breach of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. At the last inspection we found that medicine administration records were not always filled in correctly. We also found that the CQC had not been notified of incidents which affected the service. At this inspection we found that Simply Caring was meeting both these regulations.

The registered manager and staff understood their role and responsibilities to keep people safe from harm. Risks were assessed and plans put in place to keep people safe. Checks were carried out on staff to assess their suitability to work with vulnerable people.

People needed minimal support and prompting with their medicines and support was managed safely. Any risks to people were identified and managed in order to keep people safe.

The service was responsive and people received individualised care and support. People were encouraged to make their views known and the service responded by making changes. The registered manager welcomed comments and complaints and saw them as an opportunity to improve the care provided.

The registered manager and staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and worked to ensure people's rights were respected.

Staff were recruited safely and there were enough staff to make sure people had the care and support they needed.

People and relatives knew how to complain and raise any concerns. People and their relatives did not raise any concerns with us.

People were cared for by staff who knew them well. Staff treated people with dignity and respect. Efforts were made to ensure staff members were able to communicate with people using their preferred language. The manager and staff had a good understanding of equality, diversity and human rights.

The culture within the service was personalised and open. There was a clear management structure and staff felt well supported and listened to.

The vision and values of the service were clearly communicated to and understood by staff. A quality assurance system was in place. This meant the quality of service people received was monitored on a regular basis and where shortfalls were identified they were acted on.

Simply Caring had a comprehensive business continuity plan in place to prepare the service in case of unforeseen circumstances and emergencies.