Archived: Dale Care - South Tyneside (Homecare, Extra Care)

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment 24 January 2025 to 21 February 2025 Dale Care – South Tyneside is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes and in extra care living. Dale Care - South Tyneside also provide rehabilitation care for people discharged from hospital and are part of the Telecare rapid response team. At the time of the assessment 207 people were using the service; however, some were not in receipt of personal care. This is the first assessment for this service since it registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 29 June 2023. People’s call times were irregular which put people at risk. Staff were under pressure to manage calls, meaning at times they were rushed. Records did not assure us that staff had received training to support people with additional needs or a specific diagnosis. We were not fully assured that people were receiving time critical medicines as prescribed and protocols for ‘when required’ medicines were not always in place or did not have enough detail. Staff felt the provider did not always support their wellbeing and people felt their concerns were not always listened to or acted upon. Governance systems were not established or operating effectively to identify all the shortfalls found during this assessment.

However, during this assessment there was a change of management, and the operations manager and new manager were already aware of some of the concerns we raised. They were very receptive to our feedback and immediately put an action plan in place to make improvements. They told us that they could see improvements in staff morale even after such a short period of time. They said more staff had been recruited and call times were being reviewed. Staff made sure people understood their care and treatment to enable them to give informed consent. People were treated with kindness and compassion.

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