Care Quality Services Coventry

Updated 11 September 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:

One inspector and an expert by experience carried out the inspection. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service. The expert by experience supported the inspection by making phone calls to people who used the service.

Service and service type:

Allied Health Service Coventry is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes, including, older people and people living with dementia. CQC regulates the personal care provided.

A registered manager was not in post. The registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. A new manager had been appointed, who was applying to register as manager of the service.

Notice of inspection:

This comprehensive inspection took place on 22 August 2019. The inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure the manager and other staff would be available to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 24 July 2019 and ended on the 22 August 2019 when we visited the office location to meet with the manager, speak with staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection, we looked at the information we held about the service and reviewed the information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We also sought feedback from the local authority that contract with the service.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and the provider had opportunity to discuss this on the inspection visit. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection:

We spoke with 13 people who used the service and three relatives, by telephone to obtain their views of the service provided. We spoke with the branch manager, quality manager, area director and four members of staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included, four people’s care records, including daily records, risk assessments and medicine records. Three staff personnel files, including recruitment and training records. Records of complaints and the provider’s quality audits and checks.

Updated 11 September 2019

About the service:

Allied Health Services Coventry is a domiciliary care agency. It is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes, including, older people, people with mental health needs, and people living with dementia. At the time of the inspection visit the service supported 70 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

People and relatives felt safe with staff who visited them. Risks associated with people’s care were assessed and managed safely. There were enough staff to provide the care and support people required. There were safe procedures for recruitment of staff and to manage people’s medicines.

People’s needs were assessed to ensure they could be met by the service. Staff received training and support to be effective in their role. 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. Where required, people were supported with their nutritional needs.

Staff were caring. They respected people’s rights to privacy and dignity and supported people to maintain independence. People felt involved in their care and made decisions about their care and support.

People received care from staff they knew around the times agreed. Care plans contained all the information staff needed to provide personalised care. Systems were in place to manage and respond to any complaints.

The provider and managers understood their regulatory responsibilities. Managers and staff understood their roles and responsibilities and staff felt supported by the management team. There were processes for regularly assessing and monitoring the quality of the service.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was Good. The last inspection report was published (22 March 2017). Since this rating was awarded the registered provider of the service had changed. We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the date and the rating of the previous inspection.

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

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.