Lime Healthcare Support Limited

Updated 14 April 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

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 10 February 2023 and ended on 17 February 2023. We visited the location’s office on 15 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 1 relative about their experience of the care provided to people. We spoke with 6 staff including the registered manager. We looked at 2 people’s care records and 2 medicine records. We looked at 3 staff files regarding recruitment and induction practices. We also looked at quality monitoring records relating to the management of the service, training records, medication audits and meeting notes.

Updated 14 April 2023

About the service

Lime Health Care Limited is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people with a learning disability, autism, younger adults who may have sensory impairment, physical disability and older people who may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 2 people 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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support:

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 but required some improvements. People received the support they needed to keep them safe from risk of harm and meet their needs. People were supported by staff who were recruited safely and always available to offer people the support when they needed it. People had support to manage their health needs. People were supported to take their medicines safely.

Right Care:

People received support in a way which promoted independence and dignity. People’s rights were respected, and people received person-centred support. Staff were kind and caring in how they described supporting people. Staff showed an understanding of how individuals preferred to be supported including how people were communicated with and the things people liked to do.

Right Culture:

Systems in place did not always ensure documentation was completed as required. The provider was not consistently clear about when they needed to notify CQC when incidents had occurred. The provider promoted a positive culture, staff felt supported and there was evidence of regular communication with people and their relatives. Complaints were managed and responded to effectively. When things went wrong the provider ensured lessons were learned and improvements were made. The provider acted on CQC feedback and made changes to the service following our inspection.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 9 November 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

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