Archived: Supporting People

Updated 13 July 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

This consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type

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

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 72 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 23 May 2022 and ended on 1 June 2022. We requested a range of policies and procedures that were sent to us by the provider on 24 May 2022. We visited the office location on 26 May 2022 to see the registered manager and to review records related to the service. We made calls to the person’s relative and three care workers during the inspection on 26 May 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and any significant incidents that occurred at 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 made the judgements in this report.

We reviewed the last inspection report and also contacted the local authority commissioning team. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records. This included records related to one person’s care and support and four staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We also reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included minutes of team meetings, supervision records and quality assurance checks.

We spoke with five staff members. This included the registered manager, three care workers and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

The person receiving care was not able to fully communicate with us so we spoke with their relative.

We continued to review records after the inspection, which included further information related to recruitment, an updated policy and procedure and samples of rotas and timesheets.

We provided formal feedback to the registered manager on 1 June 2022 via email.

Updated 13 July 2022

Supporting People is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. They are registered to support both older people and younger adults.

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.

At the time of the inspection the provider was only supporting one person with personal care.

This person’s care was funded through a local authority direct payment agreement. A direct payment is the amount of money that the local authority has to pay to meet the needs of people and is given to them to have control and choice over who they choose to provide their care.

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

The person’s relative was very positive about the level of care their family member received. They felt they received a safe service and had developed a good relationship with the care staff and management team. They added, “They just do everything really well, communicate with us, listen and involve us and keep [family member] happy and comfortable.”

The relative was positive about the kind and caring attitude of the staff team, who supported them regularly and knew their family member well. They added, “Because of this, they fully understand their needs and know if they are becoming unwell.”

Although the issues we found did not directly impact the level of care and support the person received, some improvements were needed as important information related to their care was not always recorded or in place to ensure staff were following best practice.

The provider was aware of the increased risks of COVID-19 to the person and ensured staff had the necessary training and equipment to keep the person safe and reduce the risk of cross infection. The relative said, “They kept us updated throughout the pandemic and did a great job, keeping the care we needed throughout. It was very helpful.”

The relative was positive about the management of the service and told us they had regular opportunities to feedback about the care. They knew how to contact the provider and were confident they would deal with any issues if they did arise.

The person was supported by staff who told us they were well supported in their role and spoke positively about working for the company.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service under their previous location name was good, published on 12 March 2020.

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

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This was also due to the service changing its location name on 27 April 2021.

As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. 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 good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

Enforcement

We have identified one breach in relation to safe care and treatment.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

During the inspection, the provider told us they were planning on deregistering this service and any people using the service would be transferred over to their other registered service called ‘Supporting Independence’, managed by the same provider. The provider told us this would likely be done within the next three to six months.