Cheshire East Council Domiciliary Care Service

Updated 27 April 2019

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 an adult social care inspector and an Expert by Experience who made phone calls to people with their consent after the inspection had taken place.

Service and service type:

Cheshire East Domiciliary Care Services provides personal care and reablement support to people in their own homes for a maximum of six weeks following a hospital discharge or in the event of an emergency.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community as well as specialist housing. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks relating to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided.

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 visit because it is small and the 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 on 12 March 2019 and ended on 13 March 2019. We visited the office location on 12 March 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We made phone calls to people in their homes on 13 March 2019.

What we did:

Our planning took into account information the provider sent us since the last inspection. We also considered information about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we looked at issues raised in complaints and how the service responded to them. We assessed the PIR. 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. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection, we spoke with 12 people using the service and two family members, to ask about their experience of care. We also spoke with the registered manager, the registered provider and five members of staff.

We looked at four people’s care records and a selection of other records including quality monitoring records, recruitment and training records for two staff.

Updated 27 April 2019

About the service:

Cheshire East Domiciliary Care Service provides reablement support and care to people living in their own homes in the community following planned hospital discharges or in emergency circumstances. At the time of our inspection there were 38 people using the service, however this number changes daily depending on the level of need for the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

Everyone we spoke with said they felt safe receiving a service from Cheshire East Domiciliary Care Service. Medication was managed safely, and risks to people’s health, safety and wellbeing were assessed and reviewed during their package of care. Staff were recruited safely and incidents and accidents were logged and analysed. There was enough staff to be able to support people safely.

Staff had completed all training which the registered provider had deemed as ‘mandatory’ and there was a comprehensive induction in place for staff who were new to the organisation. People were supported to manage their food and fluid intake and were supported to make their own meals where possible. The registered manager was knowledgeable about the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, and associated legislation. Consent was clearly recorded in people’s care plans.

People were complimentary regarding the caring nature of the staff. Care plans evidenced involvement. People were signposted to local advocacy agencies if needed.

People received personalised care which was largely focused on their individual needs and outcomes. The staff worked alongside people and families to ‘enable’ them to regain their independence following a stay in hospital, and we saw care plans reflected this.

There was a complaints procedure in place and people we spoke with told us they knew how to complain.

The registered manager was driven to continuously improve the service they provided, and they worked alongside another registered manager to share good practice and create a range of audits to identify improvements. The organisation worked in partnership with the local hospitals, discharge teams, and other health and social care providers to ensure people had access to care which was right for them and met their needs. The registered manager notified us any reportable incidents.

Rating at last inspection:

Rated good, reported published September 2016.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection in line with our inspecting schedule.

Follow up:

Ongoing monitoring