Umbrella Care (Midlands) Ltd

Updated 2 May 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 was carried out by one inspector on site. There was also another inspector who carried out phone calls to people who used the service and to their relatives.

Service and service type:

Umbrella Care (Midlands) Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults and younger adults who have dementia, physical or learning disability or autistic spectrum disorders and to people that have sensory impairments. Not everyone using the service receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; helping with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating.

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. However, they had recently left therefore, the provider had an interim registered manager in situ. The provider informed us the interim manager will be going through the registration process with us. The provider who was also the director had day to day input.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit. This was because the service is a domiciliary care agency and we needed to be sure someone would be in the office when we visited. Inspection site visit activity started on 20 March 2019 and ended on 26 March 2019. We visited the office location on 20 March 2019 to see the interim manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

We used the information we held about the service, including notifications, to plan our inspection. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about. We asked for feedback from commissioners of people’s care to find out their views on the quality of the service. We spoke with one person who used the service, three relatives, one care coordinator, one carer, the interim manager, and the director. We viewed three care files for people, including daily notes and medicines records. We viewed three staff records and we looked at documents relating to the management and administration of the service, such as, audits, handovers and surveys.

Updated 2 May 2019

About the service:

Umbrella Care (Midlands) Ltd is a domiciliary care agency that was providing personal care to 12 people at the time of the inspection. People that were being supported at the time of inspection had a range of support needs, such as people living with dementia and people with physical disabilities.

People’s experience of using this service:

At the last inspection in February 2018, the service was rated as Requires Improvement overall, with breaches of the regulations in relation to consent, staff training, registration requirements and governance. At this inspection, we found that the provider had made considerable improvements and there were no longer breaches of the regulations. The home had improved and is now rated as Good.

People felt safe and risks were planned for. People had their needs assessed and had access to health care professionals when needed. People were supported when nearing end of life, although people were not routinely supported with end of life wishes, meaning that future plans had not been discussed with people. Following our feedback, the provider had plans to ensure this was put into place and recorded in care plans.

There were enough staff to ensure people received timely support and staff were recruited safely. People were supported safely with their personal care by staff that knew them well. People had their preferences taken into consideration although people were not asked about their sexuality, following our feedback, the provider had plans to ensure this would be implemented and recorded during people’s admission stage.

People received support that met their needs. People could complain when they needed to and complaints were investigated and dealt with. People and relatives were asked about their views and had opportunities to complete surveys.

Lesson were learnt when things went wrong and systems improved if needed. The managers were responsive and approachable to people that used the service and to the staff. The managers had a clear understanding of their responsibilities of their registration with us.

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection the service was rated as; Requires Improvement (report published 27 February 2018) and was in breach of regulations. At this inspection we found the service was no longer in breach and the overall rating had improved.

Why we inspected:

This was a scheduled inspection based on the previous rating, to which the provider submitted an improvement plan at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk