The Care Quality Commission
  • Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Archived: Custom Care (Harborne)

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

1st Floor, Hollingworth House, 109 Court Oak Road, Birmingham, West Midlands, B17 9AA (0121) 426 6198

Provided and run by:
London Care Limited

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile
Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

All Inspections

17 May 2017

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 19 January 2016. After that inspection we received concerns in relation to concerns were that there was a lack of support for people when they required help with their health care needs, and not contacting people’s relatives or external agencies when people’s care needs changed. We were also told that people were receiving their calls late which meant people were without their calls at the agreed time. As a result we undertook a focused inspection to look into those concerns.

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

Custom Care is registered to provide a personal care service to adults in their own homes. On the day of the inspection we were told the registered manager had left the organisation. We were assisted by the acting manager who has submitted an application with us to become the 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.

Information contained in care records was not always updated to reflect people’s changing needs so staff had the information required to support people. People did not always receive their calls as agreed.

The provider had established adequate quality monitor processes to identify if the service was meeting people’s needs or how it could be improved. However audits had not always led to improvements in the quality of the service.

Staff gave a positive view of the changes being made and felt supported. The provider acknowledged improvements were still required and an action plan was in place to work towards which was monitored and reviewed. This showed that some improvement had been made.

People were supported with their healthcare needs and appropriate referrals were made when required.

19 January 2016

During a routine inspection

The Inspection took place on 19 January 2016 and was announced. We told the provider that we were going to visit 48 hours before our inspection. This was because the service provided domiciliary care and we wanted to be sure that staff would be available to talk with us about the service.

There had been a change of provider at the location since our last inspection so this was the first inspection for the new provider.

Custom Care provides care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service provided care to people across Birmingham, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

There was a registered manager in post who was present throughout our inspection. 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 and their relatives told us that they felt safe with their staff. Staff were trained in safeguarding adults and children and understood how to protect people from abuse.

People had been involved in the planning of their care and received care and support in line with their plan of care. People told us that staff were usually on time for their care call. People who needed help with their medicines received the help they needed.

Risk’s to people were minimised because there were arrangements in place to manage identified risks with people’s care. Checks were carried out prior to staff starting work to ensure their suitability to work with people who used the service.

Staff gained people’s consent before providing care and ensured people were supported to make day to day choices. Arrangements were in place to ensure that staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005( MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards ( DoLS). Relatives told us that they were involved in making decisions for people who were unable to make decisions for themselves.

People were able to raise concerns and generally felt that they received a good response from the office staff. Most people were happy with the service they received and told us staff were caring. There were arrangements in place to monitor the quality of the service provided and understand the experience of people who used the service.