Abbey Care Solutions Ltd

Updated 19 April 2023

TThe 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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector 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.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 March 2023 and ended on 27 March 2023. We visited the location’s office on 22 March 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 9 people using the service and 8 family members. We also spoke with 8 members of staff, including the registered manager. We received email feedback from 4 professionals. We looked at 6 people's care records and a selection of other records including quality monitoring records, recruitment and training records for 3 staff members.

Updated 19 April 2023

About the service

Abbey Care Solutions ltd is a domiciliary care agency. The service provides support to older people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 59 people were using the service.

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 had risk assessments completed and then used to develop care plans which guided staff on how to care for people safely. Medicines were managed safely. We received mixed feedback in relation to timings of care calls which the registered manager followed up immediately. Staff were recruited safely, and pre-employments checks were carried out to ensure suitable staff were employed. People told us they felt safe.

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.

The management team regularly reviewed the quality of support provided to people, involving the person, their families, and other professionals as appropriate. The registered manager was in the process of introducing a different system to enable them to monitor timings of calls more effectively.

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 24 October 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to missed calls, medicines management and staff training. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained the same based on the findings of this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Abbey Care Solutions Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.