All inspections: All Seasons Home Care - Care Quality Commission

This announced comprehensive inspection took place on 12 &16 January 2016. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice of the visit because the location provides support and personal care to people living in their own homes.

All Seasons Home Care provides a domiciliary service to people within and around the Carlisle area. The agency provides personal care to adults including, older people, people with sensory loss, physical disability and various forms of dementia.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 they knew the staff who supported them and that they felt safe and relaxed in their company. Relatives told us they had no concerns about the safety of their family members when they received personal care.

Staff were able to demonstrate their knowledge about different types of abuse and how they would raise concerns if they thought people were at risk of abuse of any kind.

Care plans were written in an easily understood way and based on a thorough assessment of needs. They contained sufficient information to enable people to be supported correctly. The service managed medicines appropriately.

People we spoke to who used the service, made very positive comments about the caring attitude of the staff and the way they were supported.

Staff ensured that people’s privacy and dignity were protected at all times.

Peoples’ needs were fully assessed before the service started.

People were able to contact the agency staff if they were worried or concerned about anything.

There was a complaints procedure in place.

The registered manager asked people for their views about the care they received and made any changes necessary in line with concerns raised.

There was a quality monitoring system in place although much of this was on an informal basis through home visits by the registered manager or one of the senior care staff.

We spoke to relatives of people who received care from the agency. Everyone we spoke to made positive comments about the service and the staff who provided the care. People told us they received support from a team of staff who they knew and who had the skills and knowledge to provide the support they needed.

Comments included,

"I have no problems at all with the agency and the staff are excellent carers".

"My relative is very relaxed and is getting to know the girls well".

"I would certainly recommend this agency to other people".

We saw during our visit to this service that there were effective systems in place that ensured a good standard of care. The manager always 'matched' the staff to the person they were supporting, preferably in a location near to where the staff lived. This provided continuity of care with the minimum amount of travel between calls.

Every person had an up to date and relevant care plan that gave the support workers sufficient information to provide care relevant to the assessed needs. A quality monitoring system and a complaints procedure were in place which ensured the provision of care was constant and appropriate.

We spoke with three relatives (their loved ones were unable to communicate easily), three service users via telephone calls and five members of care staff, as well as the manager and administrator. We received extremely positive feedback and comments including;

From service users:

'They are most efficient, mostly on time and very nice and chatty. They included myself and my husband in putting together my plan of care. The manager came to see us at the beginning to go through all my needs. '

"They are always on time, courteous and helpful.'

'On the whole the standard of care is very high and very commendable.'

From relatives:

'Absolutely brilliant, the agency more than meets my mother's needs. They even made unscheduled visits when she was ill to check she was alright'

'I cannot praise them highly enough.'

'The manager is very hands on and makes regular visits to check everything is going ok.'

'They provide 24 hour care for my mother and they are absolutely excellent.'

'The company has a very good way of choosing the right staff.'

From care staff:

'I feel supported by the agency.'

'The management team are very approachable; you can always get hold of someone if you need to out of hours.'

'It's a good agency to work for the care we give is really good quality and the clients are lovely.'

Archived: All Seasons Home Care

All Inspections

12 January 2016

During a routine inspection

23, 25 April 2013

During a routine inspection

13 April 2012

During a routine inspection