Archived: Berkeley Home Health Sussex

Updated 22 April 2020

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. 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

One inspector undertook this inspection.

Service and service type

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

The service did not have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The service had a new manager who started at the service 20 January 2020.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 18 February and ended on 27 February 2020. We visited the office location on 18 February 2020.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We reviewed notifications received from the service before the inspection. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. This enabled us to ensure we were addressing any potential areas of concern. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service about their experience of the care provided and reviewed feedback the service had received from people. We spoke with the manager and received feedback from two care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We saw the training records in relation to all care staff. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 22 April 2020

About the service

Berkerley Home Health Sussex is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the Haywards Heath area. At the time of our inspection 24 people were being supported with personal care.

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

Following our last inspection there have been management changes at Berkerley Home Health Sussex. A new manager started on 20 January 2020.

People told us they felt safe. The process for assessing and monitoring risk had improved since our last inspection. Staff were recruited safely and understood their responsibilities about keeping people safe. There were enough staff to care for people safely, with staff and people using the service telling us current staffing arrangements were sufficient.

Staff were well trained to carry out their roles. They told us they had a good working relationship with the new manager and there had been improvements to the service. Staff felt listened to. They told us they were happy with the level of training, support and supervision available to support them in their roles.

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. All feedback received regarding the staff was positive. People described the staff as kind and caring.

There were quality assurance systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Action had been taken in all areas identified as requiring improvement at the previous inspection. Incidents and accidents were recorded so they could be considered and reflected upon to make improvements to the service. Complaints and concerns were addressed and there had been a significant improvement in communication within the service. People had confidence in the staff and staff spoke highly of the new manager.

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 requires improvement (published 28 February 2019). At this inspection we found improvements had been made.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.