Archived: Blue Arrow Care Limited

Updated 1 June 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.

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the registered manager was often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they, or a delegated representative, would be in.

We inspected the service on 30 April 2018. One inspector carried out the inspection.

Before the inspection, the 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 reviewed information we held about the provider, in particular notifications about incidents, accidents, safeguarding matters and any deaths. We spoke on the telephone with five people who used the service to gather their views about the service provided. We also spoke with three care staff, the registered manager and managing director about the work they did and to gather their views of the service.

We reviewed a range of documents and records including; four care records for people who used the service, three records of staff employed by the agency, as well as a sample of complaints and compliments records and policies and procedures kept by the service.

Updated 1 June 2018

We inspected Blue Arrow Care Limited on 30 April 2018. This was an announced inspection. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the registered manager was often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they, or a delegated representative, would be in.

Blue Arrow Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and domestic support to people living in their own homes in the community. It was providing a service to 17 people at the time of this inspection. Not everyone using Blue Arrow Care Limited receives a 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.

Blue Arrow Care Limited was registered with the Care Quality Commission in December 2016. This comprehensive inspection was the first inspection carried out on the service.

A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People and their relatives told us that they had had a very positive experience in receiving care and support. They described the staff as “wonderful”, “I can’t fault them”, “very happy” and “I would recommend to others”. They told us that the service was of high quality, that it was personalised to people’s individual needs and responsive to any changes that people wished to make.

People and their relatives told us that they had regular staff visiting who were punctual and communicated well with them. People knew how to raise concerns and felt that managers and staff were approachable. There was a procedure in place for people to follow if they wanted to raise any issues.

People were supported by staff who were trained and well supported in their job roles. Staff members had been safely recruited and had received an induction to the service. There were systems to safeguard people from abuse and staff completed safeguarding training and knew how to report any concerns.

Staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for the prevention and control of infection.

Staff spoke positively about working for the care agency and confirmed they had received training, including training in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and they understood the importance of gaining people’s consent before assisting them.

The service completed assessments of people’s needs and these were used to create the care plan for each person. The service kept people’s needs under review and made changes as required.

The service promoted a culture that was person centred, open and inclusive and had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and the experience of people who used it.