Background to this inspection
Updated
24 May 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type:
This is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses or flats. The service supports older people and people with a learning disability and autism. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
The inspection site visit activity started on 16 April 2019 and ended on 18 April 2019. We made telephone calls to people, their relatives and staff on 16 April 2019. We visited a person in their own home and spoke with the staff member who supported this person. We visited the office location 18 April 2019 and spoke with the registered manager, the administrator and to review care records, and policies and procedures.
What we did:
We reviewed the information we had about the service. This included notifications the provider has sent us. A notification is information about important events the service is required to send us by law.
During the inspection visit we spoke with three members of staff, the registered manager, four people, and two relatives of people who could not speak with us directly. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people's care records, three staff files in relation to recruitment, training and support. We looked at other records relating to the management of the service including staff rotas, meetings, feedback and audits. Additional evidence we had requested after our inspection was received and used to inform our judgement of the service.
Updated
24 May 2019
About the service: Eagle care Alternatives Ltd is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses or flats. At the time of the inspection eight people were using the service. Everyone using Eagle Care Alternatives received personal care.
People’s experience of using this service:
¿ People received safe care and they were protected against avoidable harm, abuse, neglect and discrimination.
¿ People’s individual needs, risks and diverse needs had been identified. People were involved in the planning of their care.
¿ People’s care needs were managed and reviewed regularly.
¿ Staff recruitment procedure was followed to ensure suitable staff were employed.
¿ There were improvement to the system to ensure staff were trained and supported to carry out their roles and their performance was monitored.
¿ Staff supported people with their medicines, ensured they had enough to eat and drink and attended health appointments as needed.
¿ People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
¿ People were encouraged to make decisions about all aspects of their care.
¿ There were improvements made to people’s care plans. These were personalised to reflect people’s wishes about how they preferred to be supported and their interests.
¿ Care plans and other information was produced in easy read format to help people understand.
¿ People were supported by kind, caring and consistent staff who respected their diverse needs.
¿ People’s privacy and dignity was protected. People’s independence was promoted where possible and they were supported to develop new skills; maintain relationships and socialise.
¿ People knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint. There was a system in place to respond to complaints and advocacy support was available.
¿ People, their relatives and staff were encouraged to give feedback on the service and to influence how the service develops.
¿ The registered manager understood their regulatory responsibility and were transparent in in line with the Duty of Candour.
¿ The provider had policies to support practices. Audits were completed and reviewed regularly to monitor the quality of service.
¿ The registered manager demonstrated a positive approach to learning and development. Any lessons learnt from incidents and feedback was shared with the staff team.
Rating at last inspection: Requires Improvement (published 7 December 2018).
Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating of the last inspection. We checked whether the provider had made improvements to meet the legal requirements and regulations with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk