Archived: Appleberry Care Dorset & Hants

Updated 23 December 2014

We inspected Appleberry Care Dorset & Hants domiciliary care agency on 15 August  2014. This was an announced inspection which was carried out by an inspector. 

We reviewed the Provider Information Record (PIR) before the inspection.  The PIR was information given to us by the provider. This enabled us to ensure we were addressing potential areas of concern. We also reviewed the information we held about the service. This service had not previously been inspected by us and we had not received any notifications. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

This report was written during the testing phase of our new approach to regulating adult social care services. After this testing phase, inspection of consent to care and treatment, restraint, and practice under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) was moved from the key question ‘Is the service safe?’ to ‘Is the service effective?’

‘The ratings for this location were awarded in October 2014. They can be directly compared with any other service we have rated since then, including in relation to consent, restraint, and the MCA under the ‘Effective’ section. Our written findings in relation to these topics, however, can be read in the ‘Is the service safe’ sections of this report.

We spoke with two relatives and asked them for feedback about the service. We also spoke with the registered manager of the provider’s other domiciliary care service. We visited the office on 15 August 2014 and met with the registered manager. We looked at two people’s care records, one staff record and at the various office systems used.

Updated 23 December 2014

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 and to pilot a new inspection process being introduced by CQC which looks at the overall quality of the service.

Appleberry Care Dorset &Hants is a domiciliary care agency. It is a small service and, at the time of our inspection, the registered manager was the only member of staff and they were providing personal care and support to two children.  A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider.

Appleberry Care Dorset &Hants is part of Appleberry Care Ltd which has one other domiciliary care service. The registered manager of Appleberry Care Dorset &Hants is also the director of Appleberry Care Limited.

This was an announced inspection; we told the provider two days before that we would be coming. This was because we wanted to ensure that the registered manager would be available to meet with us.

Relatives told us they were happy with the service. They told us they felt their relative was safe and that the care they received met their needs. People had care plans that described how their care was delivered in ways that respected their preferences. Risks were described clearly as were the ways that they were managed to keep people safe.

Relatives and a colleague spoke positively about the registered manager. They told us she was caring and communicated openly and effectively. They had experience, training, skills and knowledge suitable for their role.