Choice Care Services Limited

Updated 18 October 2019

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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

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 because some of the people using it could not consent to a home visit from an inspector. This meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.

Inspection site visit activity started on 11 September 2019 and ended on 12 September 2019. We visited the office location on 11 September to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We contacted people, relatives and staff, with prior permission, on 12 September 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We also reviewed the information we held about the service. This included any statutory notifications received. Statutory notifications are specific pieces of information about events, which the provider is required to send to us by law.

We sought feedback from the local authority contracts monitoring and safeguarding adults' teams and reviewed the information they provided. We contacted the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), who commission services from the provider, and the local Healthwatch for their feedback. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with five 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 reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 18 October 2019

About the service

Choice Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. 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. At the time of inspection 25 people were receiving personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People and their relatives were complementary about the service and the care provided by staff. People said they were treated kindly, respectfully and had their dignity upheld by staff.

People and relatives told us that they felt safe and well cared for by staff. There was enough staff to safely support people in-line with their assessed needs.

Staff supported people to remain as independent as possible within their own homes and to maintain social relationships. Staff also supported people to engage with the local community and carry out activities.

People had their needs fully assessed and reviewed regularly. Care plans were very detailed and personalised to reflect people’s choices about the care they received. Staff also worked with other health care professionals to provide a consistent and personalised care package.

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.

Risks to people had been fully identified and mitigated to keep people safe. Medicines were managed well, and staff followed best practice guidance.

Staff received regular training and had the opportunity to further develop their skills by obtaining qualifications around health and social care. New staff received an in-depth induction to prepare them for their role and provided the knowledge and skills required. Staff were supported well by the management team and received regular supervision sessions.

There was an established quality and assurance system in place to monitor the quality of care provided to people. This was used to continually improve the service and drive forward improvement.

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 11 March 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.