Acorn Care Service

Updated 27 April 2023

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 was completed by one inspector and an expert by experience in the care of older people, who made telephone calls to people and family members to gain their views about the service. 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 houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

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. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 4 April 2023 and ended on 12 April 2023. We visited the

location's office on 4 April 2023.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service, including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. 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.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 11 people and 1 family member about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager, 3 office staff members and 5 care team members. We sought information from 5 external health or social care professionals and received feedback from 2 of them.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care records and medication records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including, training, quality monitoring, policies and procedures were also reviewed.

Updated 27 April 2023

About the service

Acorn Care Services is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care for people who require this due to older age, illness or disability. At the time of the inspection the agency was providing a personal care service for 39 people living in the towns of Newport, Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin and surrounding areas on the Isle of Wight. 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.

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

We received positive feedback from people or their family member about the service they were receiving. People felt they were cared for with warmth and kindness and spoke highly of the care staff. 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.

The registered manager took prompt action to ensure consistent use of disposable aprons when providing personal care. People told us they felt safe when receiving care. Medicines were safely managed and staff contacted healthcare professionals when required.

People told us they had been involved in care planning and care plans reflected people's individual needs and choices. Staff were responsive to people's needs, which were detailed in care plans accessible to staff via an electronic system. People's risk assessments and risks relating to their home environment were completed and helped reduce risks to people.

Safe recruitment practices were followed and appropriate checks were undertaken, which helped make sure only suitable staff were employed to care for people in their own homes. There were enough care staff to maintain the schedule of visits.

Staff told us they felt supported, received training and supervision and had time to complete their schedule of work.

People had regular contact from office staff who they were confident would listen to them and take any necessary action should the need arise. The registered manager, office staff and care staff team were committed to ensuring people received a service which was caring.

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 this service was good (published 17 July 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by the length of time since the previous inspection.

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 remained good.

Follow up

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