Warrington Borough Council Intermediate Care at Home

About the service

Warrington Borough Council Intermediate Care at Home is a domiciliary care service provided by the Local Authority. The service is managed from premises in Irwell Road, Warrington and provides intermediate, and rehabilitative personal care across the Warrington Borough Council area. At the time of the inspection, the provider was supporting 85 people.

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.

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

People received person-centred care that was tailored around their support needs and areas of risk. Packages of care were regularly reviewed, and levels of risk were routinely assessed, reviewed and monitored.

People told us they felt safe receiving care from the provider. People were protected from avoidable harm, staff received safeguarding training and knew how to escalate any concerns that presented. Safeguarding incidents were reported and regular reviews and trend analysis took place.

Safe recruitment processes were in place; candidates were appropriately selected and the necessary recruitment checks were carried out. Staffing levels were routinely monitored and people received care and support by staff who were familiar with their support needs.

Medication processes and systems were safely implemented. Staff were appropriately trained to administer medication and routinely had their competency levels checked. Medication audits helped to monitor and review medication compliance; areas of improvement were quickly responded to and managed.

Governance systems helped to monitor the quality and safety of care people received. The registered manager ensured that all areas of care were monitored and assessed, this helped to ensure regulatory compliance but also helped to identify where improvements were needed.

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.

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 12 December 2017) insert date last report published in brackets.

Why we inspected

This was a planned pilot virtual inspection. The report was created as part of a pilot which looked at new and innovative ways of fulfilling CQC’s regulatory obligations and responding to risk in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was conducted with the consent of the provider. Unless the report says otherwise, we obtained the information in it without visiting the provider.

The pilot inspection considered the key questions of safe and well-led and provide a rating for those key questions. Only parts of the effective, caring and responsive key questions were considered, and therefore the ratings for these key questions are those awarded at the last inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Warrington Borough Council Intermediate Care at Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

At our last inspection in January 2016 the service was rated Good overall. At this inspection we found the service remained good in all aspects of service delivery. The service continues to provide safe, effective, caring, and responsive and well led services to the people who live within Warrington Borough Council area.

All the people we spoke with on the telephone or visited as part of the inspection told us that they received good quality care that met their individual needs and personal preferences. They told us that staff were skilled in providing care that took account of the way they wanted things to be done. They reported that the staff were well trained, professional but caring and sensitive in their approach. The only criticism we received from the people who used the service and their relatives was that continuity of care could be improved. We could see that there had been occasions when care was provided by staff who the person had previously not met or been introduced to. They told us that this had not caused any problems other than they missed the comfort that familiarity with their carers would bring. This, they said, was because the staff were skilled in their approach and knew how to respect people’s privacy and dignity.

We found that the manager and her team of staff were continually monitoring the quality of service provided and strived to ensure that improvements were made where possible. They had already recognised that improvements needed to be made regarding the continuity of care and we could see that they were working collaboratively with the people who used the service and staff to ensure that improvements were made.

The staff presented as a well-supported team that benefited from clear and effective leadership and support. We could see that the service was built on firm foundations and was well placed to continue to provide safe and effective care that people valued and benefited from.

Further information is in the detailed findings below