Archived: Carewatch (Brighton)

Updated 17 April 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, 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 team consisted of two inspectors and two experts-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. They undertook telephone calls to gain feedback from people using the service and their relatives.

Service and service type:

¿ This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to predominately older people who may also be living with dementia, people who misuse drugs and alcohol, have mental health issues, or a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder.

¿ Not everyone using Carewatch (Brighton) received the regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection 177 people were using the service but only 167 people received support with personal care.

¿ 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 a weeks’ notice of the inspection visit. This was because we wanted to gain feedback from people using the service, which we used to inform the site visit. We also needed to be sure the management would be in the office. We visited the office on 26 February 2019 to see the registered manager, talk with care staff and to look at the records.

What we did:

¿ Before the inspection we reviewed the information, we held about the service and the service provider.

¿ The registered provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

¿ We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law. We spoke with 21 people using the service and five relatives.

¿ We contacted the local authority and five health and social care professionals for their experience of the service provided. We received two responses.

• During the office site visit we looked at records.

This included:

¿ Four staff recruitment files

¿ Training records

¿ Eight people’s care records

¿ Records of accidents, incidents and complaints

¿ Audits and quality assurance reports

¿ We also spoke with the registered manager, the area manager, a quality manager, two quality

officers, a coordinator and eight care staff.

Updated 17 April 2019

About the service:

Carewatch (Brighton) is a domiciliary care agency and provides support with personal care to people living in their own homes in the Brighton and Hove area. At the time of the inspection 167 people received personal care from the service.

At this inspection we found the service to be Good overall. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

People’s experience of using this service:

¿People told us they felt safe with the care and support provided. Staff had a good understanding of the risks associated with the people they supported. Risk assessments provided further information for staff. People were protected from the risks of harm, abuse or discrimination because staff knew what actions to take if they identified concerns.

¿People were supported to receive their medicines when they needed them. There were enough staff working to provide the support people needed, where possible at times of their choice. Recruitment procedures ensured only suitable staff worked at the service.

¿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.

¿People were supported with their food and drink and this was monitored regularly. People's health and well-being needs were met. They were supported to have access to healthcare services when they needed them. Staff received training that enabled them to deliver the support that people needed. Staff received support from the registered manager and the office staff.

¿People were supported by staff who knew them well. Staff understood people’s needs, choices and histories and knew what was important to each person. People were treated with kindness, respect and understanding. They were enabled to make their own decisions and choices about what they did each day.

¿People received support that was person-centred and met their individual needs, choices and preferences. Complaints had been recorded, investigated and responded to appropriately.

¿The registered manager was well thought of and supportive to people and staff. They had a good overview of the service. There were systems in place to assure quality and identify if improvements to the service were needed.

Rating at last inspection: Requires improvement. (Report published 13 June 2018).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

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