Archived: Alcedo Care Wigan and St Helens

Updated 24 October 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.

Service and service type:

Kare Plus Wigan & St Helens is a ‘domiciliary care service’ It provides personal care to people living in their own homes and flats.

The service had a manager registered with the CQC. 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.

Notice of inspection:

We carried out this inspection on 9 and 11 September 2019. At the time of the inspection there were approximately 60 people using the service.

The inspection was announced on 6 September 2019 to ensure the inspection could be facilitated by the registered manager at the location office. We also informed the registered manager we would be returning for a second day to complete the inspection.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information and evidence we already held about this service, which had been collected via our ongoing monitoring of care services. This included notifications sent to us by the service. Notifications are changes, events or incidents that the provider is legally obliged to send to us without delay.

We also viewed the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We contacted Wigan and St Helens local authority for feedback about the service.

The first of day of the inspection was spent at the main office, reviewing documentation and speaking with staff. On the second day, we carried out several home visits to speak with people who used the service and their relatives about the care provided by Kare Plus Wigan & St Helens.

During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, seven staff, six people who used the service and two relatives. This was to seek their feedback about what it was like to receive care from and work for Kare Plus Wigan & St Helens.

Documentation reviewed included six care plans, five staff personnel files, six medicine administration records (MARs) and other records about the management of the service to help inform our inspection judgements.

Updated 24 October 2019

About the service:

Kare Plus Wigan & St Helens is a domiciliary care service based in Wigan and provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. The services are operated by Alcedo Orange Limited.

People’s experience of using this service:

Although people told us they were happy with the service they received, we were told communication could be better. This was because people were not always informed by staff if they were going to be late for their care visit.

People told us they received their medicines safely, although the record keeping of when medicines were administered needed to be improved.

People said they felt safe using the service, with staff demonstrating a good understanding about how to protect people from the risk of harm. Staff were recruited safely, with appropriate checks carried out when their employment commenced.

There were enough staff to care for people safely, with staff telling us their weekly rotas were well managed. Accidents and incidents were monitored and any actions taken to prevent future re-occurrence were recorded.

People received the support they needed to eat and drink. People said they felt treated with dignity and respect and staff promoted their independence as required.

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. Decision specific mental capacity assessments were completed as necessary.

Complaints were handled appropriately, with responses sent to people if they had been unhappy with the service they received.

Audits and quality assurance systems were in place to monitor the quality of service. We received positive feedback from everybody we spoke with about management and leadership within the service.

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 20 September 2018 and this was the first inspection we had undertaken.

Why we inspected:

This was a routine comprehensive inspection and in line with our timescales for newly registered services.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor information and intelligence we receive about the service to ensure good quality care is provided to people. We will return to re-inspect in line with our inspection timescales for Requires Improvement rated services, however if any information of concern is received, we may inspect sooner.