Background to this inspection
Updated
6 July 2021
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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
This inspection was completed by one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
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 a short period notice of the inspection. This was because we needed consent from people to allow us to contact them and we requested some documentation prior to the office visit.
Inspection activity started on 14 June 2021 and ended on 18 June 2021. We visited the office location on 15 June 2021.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service.
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We telephoned five people who used the service and three relatives to speak with them about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also received feedback from eight care staff about their experiences.
We reviewed a range of records including five people's care and medicine records and one staff recruitment file. We also looked at a range of records relating to the management of the service, some of which were shared with us electronically. Feedback from the inspection was shared with the nominated individual, the registered manager and the deputy manager
After the inspection
We continued to review documentation the registered manager had shared with us.
Updated
6 July 2021
About the service
Blyth Valley Disabled Forum is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. Services are provided to people with a wide range of needs, including people living with a dementia. At the time of the inspection there were 244 people receiving care and support, of which 204 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
People were protected from the risk of infection. Government guidance was being followed and staff understood how to safely put on, take off and dispose of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Risks had been identified and steps taken to minimise and manage those risks.
Medicines records were completed in full and staff had attended the required training to support them to administer medicines safely. Staff had completed updated training on infection prevention and control, and safeguarding.
New quality assurance systems and audits had been introduced to assess, monitor and where required, improve the quality and safety of the service. We have made a recommendation about fully embedding the system.
People told us they felt safe and were supported by a small group of staff who they generally knew well. Staff said they were well supported and found the management team to be approachable.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection (and update)
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 25 January 2021)
The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.
The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Blyth Valley Disabled Forum on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.