Bess Care Limited

Updated 5 September 2019

The Inspection:

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.

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 homes.

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 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.

What we did before the inspection

When planning our inspection, we used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). 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 looked at the information we held about the service. This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts, which they are required to send us by law. We also contacted the Local Authority commissioning service and the local Health watch for any relevant information they may have to support our inspection.

During the inspection

During our visit we discussed the care provided with three people who used the service, two relatives, three members of care staff, the registered manager and a social worker.

We looked at the care records of three people who used the service and three staff files, as well as the medicine management processes and records maintained by the provider about recruitment and staff training. We looked at records relating to the management of the service and a selection of the service’s policies and procedures to check people received a quality service.

Updated 5 September 2019

About the service:

Bess Care Ltd provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of our visit there were 16 people receiving care and support from the provider.

People’s experience of using this service:

The service was not consistently well led. The provider did not have effective auditing systems in place to monitor the effectiveness and quality of service provision.

People were kept safe and secure from risk of harm. Potential risks to people had been assessed and managed appropriately by the provider. People received their medicines safely and as prescribed and were supported by sufficient numbers of staff to ensure that risk of harm was minimised.

Staff had been recruited appropriately and had received relevant training, so they were able to support people with their individual care and support needs.

Staff sought people’s consent before providing care and support. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were treated with kindness and compassion. People’s rights to privacy and their dignity was maintained and respected by the staff who supported them. People were supported to express their views and be actively involved in making decisions about their care and support needs.

People’s choices and independence were respected and promoted. Staff responded appropriately to people’s support needs. People received care from staff that knew them well.

People using the service were confident about approaching the manager if they needed to. The views of people on the quality of the service was gathered and used to support service development.

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

Rating at last inspection:

At our last inspection in June 2016 [published 06/12/2016] we rated the service as good. At this inspection we found the 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.

At the last inspection the service was rated as Good. The service remained rated as Good overall.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.