Christchurch Care

Updated 11 August 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by an inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 13 July 2023 and ended on 17 July 2023. We visited the location’s office on 13 July 2023.

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. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 8 people who used the service and 3 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 5 members of staff including the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also spoke with the registered manager, team leaders and care staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people’s care records. We looked at 2 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision and a variety of records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 11 August 2023

About the service

Christchurch Care is a care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection they were providing care to 42 people. Not everyone who used the service 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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. The service was pro-active in establishing links with the local community that benefited people with both practical and social support.

Right Care:

People told us they felt safe and had confidence in the staff that cared for them. People had their risks assessed, monitored and regularly reviewed and staff demonstrated a good knowledge of the actions needed to keep people safe. People were cared for by staff that had completed a robust recruitment process. Staffing levels were good and provided the flexibility needed to meet people’s changing needs. People had their medicines administered safely. Staff had completed infection, prevention and control training and were kept up to date with best practice guidance.

Right Culture:

Staff spoke positively about the organisation and the culture of the service. They felt supported and appreciated, describing a caring organisation that treated people, their families and the staff team with kindness. The service worked in partnership with other agencies which meant they kept up to date with new innovations and best practice guidance.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 15 March 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service remains good.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Christchurch Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.