Bloomfield Care Limited

Updated 30 April 2022

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors and one expert by experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 29 March 2022 and ended on 1 April 2022. We visited the location’s office on 29 March 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service and four relatives on the telephone about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine members of staff including the registered manager, nominated individual, field care supervisors and care workers. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people's care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 30 April 2022

About the service

Bloomfield Care Limited is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people at home. Not everyone who uses the service receives 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. There were 12 people using the service at the time of the inspection receiving a regulated activity of personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We found significant improvements had been made to the service since our last inspection.

After our last inspection the registered manager stopped providing regular hands on care to focus on their role and responsibilities. This meant they were able to ensure service delivery was consistent by overseeing systems and processes, embedding them into the service and ensuring they were sustained.

All staff had completed comprehensive training and knew how to safeguard people from abuse. Through pre assessments and ongoing care planning, the service had identified potential risks to people and had detailed, person centred plans in place to mitigate risk of harm. People told us staff were kind and caring and they felt safe. One person told us, "I am very happy with the carers. They are on time or will contact me if they will be late. They have never missed a call. I feel very safe."

Medicines were managed safely and lessons were learned when things went wrong. Staff had their competencies checked to ensure they worked in a safe way.

Staff told us they felt supported and had enough up to date training to fulfil their roles. Staff told us they knew they could speak with their registered manager and felt confident they would be listened to and their concerns acted upon.

People had access to healthcare professionals and people told us staff assisted them to access this support when needed.

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. Staff understood how to treat people with dignity and respect and people's experience of their care confirmed this.

Care plans were personalised and met people's needs in a variety of ways, both practically and emotionally. The service used an electronic logging system which meant that they could respond if staff were held up or going to be late. People knew how to make a complaint and the service's policy supported that.

Systems and processes to ensure the consistent safe delivery of good quality care had been established and embedded into the service. The registered manager and provider understood their roles and responsibilities and had changed the structure of the service to ensure improvements were made and sustained. People thought the service was well led and staff told us they were proud to work for Bloomfield Care Limited.

We received compliments about the support and leadership of the service. People and staff told us they felt the service was organised and well-led. One relative said, "I think the company is well managed and organised. I do not have any complaints and I would recommend them." The service worked well with other organisations and professionals.

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

Rating at last inspection and update.

The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 29 September 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

This service has been in Special Measures since 22 September 2021. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 2 August 2021. Four breaches of legal requirements were found and three Warning Notices were served. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safeguarding of vulnerable adults, safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check whether the Warning Notices’ we previously served in relation to Regulation 12, Regulation 13 and Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met and to check they had followed their action plan to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective, Responsive and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Inadequate to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bloomfield Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.