Archived: Bespoke Care At Home

Updated 6 January 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.

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

Our inspection took place on 28 November 2017 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of our inspection visit because it is small and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 28 November 2017. We visited the office location on 28 November to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

Our inspection was completed by two adult social care inspectors 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. Our Expert by Experience was familiar with the care of older adults who receive support in the community.

To gather information from people who used the service and their relatives, we completed telephone interviews. We spoke with eight people and two relatives. We reviewed information we already held about the service. This included notifications we had received. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public, local authorities and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). We checked records held by Companies House and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

The inspection was informed by feedback from questionnaires completed by a number of people who used the service. This complimented staff on the care that was received.

At our inspection we spoke with the provider’s main partner, registered manager, a care coordinator, two administrators and four care workers.

We looked at five people’s care records, four staff personnel files and other records about the management of the service. After the inspection, we asked the registered manager to send us further documents and we received and reviewed this information. This evidence was included as part of our inspection.

Updated 6 January 2018

Our inspection took place on 28 November 2017 and was announced.

Bespoke Care at Home is a family-operated domiciliary care service based in Burnham. The service provides personal care to people in their own home. The service supports people in Burnham, Slough, Maidenhead, Windsor and surrounding areas.

At the time of our inspection, 51 people used the service and there were 40 staff.

People were protected from abuse and neglect. Appropriate systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of preventable harm. People’s care risks were appropriately assessed, mitigated and recorded. Recruitment practices and supporting documentation met the requirements set by the applicable legislation. We found appropriate numbers of staff were deployed to meet people’s needs. People’s medicines were safely managed. We made a recommendation about people’s medicines management.

The service was compliant with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and associated codes of practice. People were assisted 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. We made a recommendation about the required evidence for people’s enduring and lasting powers of attorney.

Staff induction, training, supervision and performance appraisals were satisfactory and ensured workers had the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively support people. People’s care preferences, likes and dislikes were assessed, recorded and respected. We found there was collaborative working with other community healthcare professionals. People were supported to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The service was caring. There was complimentary feedback from people who used the service and relatives. People told us they were able to participate in care planning and reviews and some decisions. People’s privacy and dignity was respected when care was provided to them.

Care plans were appropriate and contained information of how to support people in the right way. We saw there was a complaints system in place which included the ability for people to contact any office-based staff member or the management team. Some improvement was required in the way concerns and complaints were recorded. We made a recommendation about complaints management. Questionnaires were used to determine people’s satisfaction with the care.

People had positive opinions about the management and leadership of the service. There was a good workplace culture and we saw the staff worked cohesively to ensure good care for people. Audits and checks were used to gauge the safety and quality of care. The provider met the conditions of registration and complied with other relevant legislation related to the adult social care sector.