Archived: CASA Liverpool

Updated 16 January 2020

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:

CASA Liverpool is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people in their own homes.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. However, there was a manager in post who was due to start the registration application process following our inspection. This means the provider is 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 24 hours’ notice of our inspection. This is because we needed to be sure the manager and other senior staff would be available to assist us with our inspection.

Inspection activity started on 21 November 2019 and ended on 22 November 2019. We visited the office location on 21 November 2019.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and we used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

We visited the service’s office on 21 November 2019. We reviewed a range of documentation including five people's care records, medication records, five staff files, audits and records relating to the quality checks undertaken by staff and other management records. On 22 November 2019 we spoke over the telephone with five people supported, five of their relatives. During the inspection we spoke with 10 staff spoken with including the manager, the quality, training and recruitment manager, other senior managers and care workers.

Updated 16 January 2020

About the service:

CASA Liverpool is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 147 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they felt safe being supported by staff and there were systems in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse. People and their relatives said staff were usually on time and always stayed for as long as they were needed. Comments included, “[The staff] are usually spot on, only very occasionally are they late but they’re polite and let me know.”

People and their relatives told us they were involved in the assessment process and staff effectively met their needs. One person said, “I can’t fault them, they know what help I need.” People and their relatives also felt staff were well-trained. One relative told us staff had undertaken some additional training to better support the specific needs of their relative.

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, relatives and staff had developed good and caring relationships. When asked if staff were caring people commented, “Very much so, it’s like having friends call in to see I’m ok.” People and their relatives said the staff supported them to live as independently as possible at home. One person said, “[The staff] think of doing extras for me, they’re very supportive. They’ve noticed things I’m struggling with and helped.”

Care plans contained the basic information staff needed to support people safely and effectively. Care plans were regularly reviewed and people and their relatives were involved in this process. Complaints were appropriately recorded, responded to and, where necessary, acted upon. People and their relatives also told us they felt comfortable raising concerns with staff if needed.

The service had made improvements to its governance structure, along with more robust and effective quality assurance systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Significant improvements had also been made to the call scheduling system used at the service, ensuring that staff were able to provide people with the care they needed at the planned times.

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

Rating at last inspection and update:

At the last inspection the service was rated requires improvement (report published 1 December 2018) and we found a breach of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.