Cera Rochdale & Oldham

Updated 5 October 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection took place on 23 and 24 August 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provided a domiciliary care service to people who lived in the community. We needed to ensure there would be someone present at the office to facilitate the inspection.

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector. The onsite visits gave us the opportunity to speak with the manager and office staff and review care records, policies and procedures.

Before this inspection we reviewed information, we held about the service and used the information to decide which areas to focus on during our inspection. This included statutory notifications sent to us by the registered manager about incidents and events that had occurred at the service. A notification is information about events which the service is required to send us by law.

We contacted Healthwatch Rochdale and the Local Authority Commissioning and Safeguarding teams to obtain their views about the provider. They raised no concerns about the service.

We reviewed the Provider Information Record (PIR) before the inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service and tells us what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection we spoke to the registered manager and eight staff members. We visited three people in their own homes and spoke to three people by phone.

During the office visit we looked at policies and procedures, incident and accident records, safeguarding records and complaint records. We reviewed care records and risk management plans of six people using the service and checked other records relating to people's support plans which included medicines administration records to ensure these were accurate and completed correctly. We looked at three staff recruitment, training and supervision records, team meeting minutes, satisfaction surveys and a range of auditing tools and systems and other documents related to the management of the service.

Updated 5 October 2018

Homecare4u is a domiciliary care agency (DCA) located in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service provided care and support to 59 people.

At our last inspection the overall rating of the service was ‘good’. At this inspection we found that evidence continued to support the rating of ‘good’ and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

Safe recruitment practices were in place to protect people from unsuitable staff. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to safeguard people from abuse. There were sufficient staff to care for people. Risks to people's safety were assessed and medicines were administered safely.

People said staff protected their privacy and their dignity was respected. People involved in their care and were supported to be independent.

There was good support in place for staff. This included an induction that covered key areas of knowledge, shadowing experienced members of staff, competency checks and spot checks by senior staff.

The registered manager had arranged refresher training on the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) to ensure that the service is consistently working within the principles of the MCA. We will check this when we next inspect the service.

People’s care needs were met and people were supported to access services in the community. The service received good feedback through compliments, cards and surveys and had only received one complaint in the previous twelve months. Independent advocacy was also promoted to safeguard people’s rights where required.

The service was well led. The registered manager was committed and accessible to staff who received good support. The service had good systems in place to monitor performance and an open culture where further learning can continue to take place to drive further improvement.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.