The Care Quality Commission
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Brighter Home Care

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Unit 1, Chiltern Road Business Park, Chiltern Road, Cheltenham, GL52 5JS

Provided and run by:
Brighter Home Care Ltd

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of assessment: 21 May to 11 June 2026 with an onsite visit to the registered location on 26 May 2026. Brighter Homecare is a homecare service that provides care and support for people in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This assessment was undertaken to follow up on previously identified breaches of legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing, statutory notifications of incidents and good governance. Improvements were found at this assessment, and the provider was no longer in breach of these regulations.

People’s care and support requirements and associated risks were comprehensively assessed and recorded to provide staff with guidance of how to support people. People’s prescribed medicines had been managed and administered safely as prescribed. Referrals to health care professionals had been made when staff reported changes in people’s needs.

Effective systems were in place to report and investigate incidents, accidents, safeguarding and complaints. Actions were taken and lessons learnt were shared with staff to help prevent further occurrences. The provider had appropriately referred people to specialist services and notified CQC as required.

There was no registered manager in post; however interim management arrangements were in place. A manager in post was intending to apply to become the registered manager of the service.

Staff were supported and trained to carry out their role. Staff reported their care call rotas were realistic and allowed them to provide support to people in a person-centred manner without feeling rushed.

The provider had improved their systems to monitor the quality of care being delivered to people. They valued and acted on feedback from people who use the service, staff and other stakeholders. The managers were knowledgeable about the service and demonstrated they had a good understanding of their legal requirements and needs of the people who were supported by the service.

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of assessment 20 May to 2 June 2025. Brighter Homecare is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone using the service received a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this assessment, 110 people were receiving personal care from the service. We carried out an onsite and offsite responsive assessment of the service due to emerging risk and the age of our last assessment. We found 4 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to submitting statutory notifications, safe care and treatment, staffing and the governance of the service.

Effective quality assurance systems had not been fully implemented to assist the registered manager in identifying shortfalls in the quality and safety of the service. The provider had not ensured CQC had been notified of registration changes, and incidents that had affected people who use the service. People’s care and medicine records did not accurately reflect the support they required, and the care provided. Staff had not received support and refresher training in key subjects required for their role.

However, most people were pleased with the care they received from the service. The service had been responsive to people’s concerns and took action to improve their personal wellbeing. Staff said they felt supported and trained and could approach the managers with any concerns. The registered manager was responsive to our feedback and was keen to make improvements to the service.

In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

 

25 February 2021

During a routine inspection

About the service

Brighter Home Care is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. The service supported five people at the time of the inspection.

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

Since the services registration with CQC in July 2019, the registered manager had concentrated on building up the service and developing a stable staff team.

People and their relatives told us they were happy with the service they received and felt safe amongst the staff who supported them. They praised the caring nature of staff and felt staff were very polite and they respected their dignity and privacy.

A consistent staff team ensured people received care from staff who were familiar with their needs. Staff encouraged people to retain their independence and make decisions about their care.

Staff were trained and supported to carry out their role and were knowledgeable about good care practices and their responsibilities to protect people from harm and abuse.

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. However, we have made a recommendation about the processes used to gain people’s lawful consent when they may not have the mental capacity to consent to their care package or specific decisions.

People’s care plans provided staff with the information they needed to support people and the management of people’s individual risks.

The registered manager and staff were passionate about delivering good quality care to people and ensuring people were safe and their needs were met.

The registered manager has a good understanding of the management of people’s needs and development of staff and was open to making improvements to the service. However, further development of their quality assurance systems was needed to ensure that people received safe care from staff who had been suitably recruited and supported.

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 in July 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This service had not been inspected since their registration in July 2019, therefore, this inspection was carried out to gain assurances about the quality of care and systems used to monitor and manage the service.

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.