Calm Futures

Updated 2 November 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

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.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

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 provider 48 hrs notice of the inspection to enable them to provide us with the evidence we required to carry out a virtual inspection of this service.

Inspection activity started on 21 September and ended on 4 October 2022.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service. This included details about incidents the provider must let us know about, and we sought feedback from the local authority and other professionals involved with the service.

The provider completed 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 used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager and received feedback from four members of care staff. We contacted the person who was being supported to ask for their feedback. We looked at one person’s care records. We reviewed training and supervision records and documents relating to the management of the service and quality audits.

Updated 2 November 2022

About the service

Calm Futures is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of inspection, the service was supporting one person with personal care.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

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

Right Support:

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.

Right Care:

People’s care was highly personalised and enabled them to achieve good outcomes. Risks to people’s safety were assessed and monitored and people had personalised risk assessments in place.

The provider had systems in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and staff knew how to recognise and report any concerns.

Staff had access to appropriate personal protective equipment [PPE] and safe infection prevention and control processes were in place.

Staff received an induction when starting in their role and completed relevant training to develop their skills and knowledge.

The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service and had built positive working relationships with other healthcare professionals to support people’s needs, share learning and develop the service.

Right Culture:

People were supported by staff to pursue their interests. People were encouraged to share their views and develop and improve the service. The quality of support provided was evaluated regularly.

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

Ratings at last inspection

This service was registered on 02 July 2021 and this is the first inspection of this service.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection because the service had not been inspected or rated.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.