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Blue Ribbon Community Care (Tyne and Wear)

Overall: Outstanding read more about inspection ratings

Business & Innovation Centre, Wearfield, Sunderland Enterprise Park, Sunderland, SR5 2TA (0191) 514 1556

Provided and run by:
Hughes and Daughters Care Ltd

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Background to this inspection

Updated 14 June 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place between 9 February and 6 March 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours notice of the inspection visit because the location provides a domiciliary care service. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

Prior to the inspection we contacted external commissioners of the service from the local authority and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), as well as the local authority safeguarding team and the local Healthwatch. We used their feedback during the planning of this inspection.

During our inspection we visited six people who used the service. We also had telephone conversations with a further six people and three relatives. We spoke with a range of staff including the registered manager and six care workers. We reviewed a range of records including five people’s care records, medicine records, five staff files, training records and other records relating to the quality and safety of the service.

Overall inspection

Outstanding

Updated 14 June 2018

This inspection took place between 9 February and 6 March 2018 and was announced. When we last inspected the service we found the provider had breached the regulations relating to safe care and treatment because the arrangements for managing medicines were not always safe. We rated the service as Good. Following this inspection, to reflect the improvements the provider has made, we have rated the service as Outstanding.

Following the last inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve the key questions is the service safe. We found progress had been made and the provider was now meeting the regulations. In particular medicines were administered safely and there were robust quality assurance processes to check on medicines management.

Blue Ribbon Community Care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of our inspection it provided a service to approximately 43 people.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. People, relatives and staff described the registered manager as supportive and approachable. They told us since the registered manager had started there had been significant improvements made to the service.

People, relatives and staff told us about the exceptional care the service provided. Words used to describe the care included amazing, wonderful, brilliant and first class. Staff were described as ‘highly competent’. They said staff were especially caring. Special relationships had developed so that staff felt like part of their extended family. Staff regularly went above and beyond to ensure people’s needs were anticipated and met with the utmost dignity and respect. The registered manager led by example and also regularly went the extra mile to ensure people were safe and well cared for. Staff were creative in how they developed relationships with people so that people received the best care in personalised and meaningful ways.

The registered manager and staff team worked enthusiastically to provide an excellence in line with the service’s values of compassion, respect, collaboration and promoting independence. People were at the heart of how the service operated which was flexible and adaptable to suit people’s changing needs.

The registered manager was extremely proactive in attending multi-disciplinary team meetings to ensure people received consistent care across all services. They also promoted joint working with other professionals to develop the skills of the staff team.

The provider had a particularly effective quality assurance system to drive sustained improvement.

People, staff and relatives felt the service was safe.

A reliable and consistent staff team provided people’s care. People said staff turned up on time and stayed for the full length of the call.

The provider had effective recruitment systems to ensure new staff were recruited safely.

Staff showed a good understanding of the provider’s procedures to keep people safe and knew how to report concerns. Previous safeguarding concerns had been dealt with effectively. They told us they had no concerns about people’s safety.

Staff felt extremely well supported and received the training they needed.

Staff supported people to meet their nutritional and healthcare needs. People confirmed staff supported them to have enough to eat and drink.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People had detailed care plans which described how they wanted to be cared for to meet their individual needs.

People only gave extremely positive feedback about the service. They said if they had any issues they would have no problem speaking to the registered manager or other staff. A small number of complaints had been received which had been dealt with thoroughly.