iCare Solutions Manchester Limited

Updated 7 May 2025

Date of Assessment: 8 July to 21 July 2025.

The service is a care at home service, providing personal care and support to people living in and around Greater Manchester. The service supports older people and younger adults living with various health conditions and impairments. At the time of this assessment, 136 people were receiving support from the service. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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.

We carried out this focused assessment in safe and well-led in response to concerns raised regarding the service, specifically related to issues with rotas. During this assessment we found the provider had worked closely with the local authority and issues with the rotas had been vastly resolved and further work was underway to review the quality of rotas and drive service improvements.

Recruitment checks were robust to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable adults. Staff had the necessary safety checks in place before starting work and completed a full induction.

People were protected from the risks of abuse and staff were trusted to keep them safe. Staff had received training in how to safeguard people.

People's care needs were risk assessed and care plans provided staff with the information they needed to manage the identified risk. The service worked well with other health and social care professionals and supported people to achieve good outcomes.

The provider, manager and staff had a shared culture and passion for ensuring people reached their maximum potential. The provider and manager were visible and accessible for staff to seek advice and guidance.

Governance systems were in place to monitor the standard of care people received. Staff had regular contact with people and completed regular reviews, which also reviewed the quality of care received. Meetings took place with different staff teams, which also looked at the quality of care and performance.

Staff told us the provider and manager were fair, had an ‘open door’ policy and they created a positive working culture to drive continual learning and improvement.

Updated 7 May 2025

We spoke with people who used the service and their and relatives about their experiences of the care and services they received. Feedback was mixed, although most people we spoke with were happy with the care given and the consistency of care staff. Most people also told us that they were kept informed when their visits were running later than planned. Some people we spoke with did, however, have complaints about the consistency of care staff, timings of visits and not always being informed when their visits were running late. We fed this back to the manager, who took the information on board and gave assurance that they would work on improving services for people.

People told us they felt safe with the service provided and any required changes to care were discussed and updated. One person told us, “I do feel safe with them because they [staff] know me and they know what to do.” Another person added, “I do have a care plan and they [staff] came about 8 weeks ago to review it. There were a couple of little things that were changed and they [staff] have given me a copy of the new care plan.”

People told us their care needs were met and staff were knowledgeable about their needs. One person told us, “They [staff] come to me every day and I am very happy with everything. There is nothing that they could improve.”

People told us staff treated them well and responded to their needs. People’s comments includes, “They [staff] are friendly and kind” and “They [staff] are friendly with me and they talk to me all the time and ask me if I need anything else doing.”

Some relatives expressed they would like to have access to people’s daily notes which was recorded on an electronic app. We fed this back to the manager who informed us, currently the electronic app [provided by an external company] does not have the facility to allow relatives access to the daily notes. However, the company is developing the app to allow this function, and once active, the information will be shared with people and their relatives about how to access the daily notes.