Archived: Wellbeing Teams

Updated 2 April 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 team consisted of two Adult Social Care Inspectors, an Inspection Manager, a member of the Adult Social Care Policy team and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of domiciliary care service.

Service and service type:

Wellbeing Teams is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides support to adults, including people with dementia.

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. The service employs self-managed teams where many of the usual roles of the registered manager are performed by the local teams.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and we needed to be sure the registered manager and local Wellbeing Leader would be in the office.

Inspection site visit activity started on 7 January 2019 and ended on 8 January 2019. We visited the team based in Wigan to see the Registered Manager and Wellbeing Leader and to review care records and policies and procedures. We made telephone calls to people being supported by and people working for the service in Oxfordshire.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service including notifications the service was required to send us about things happening in the service, information from other stakeholders, for example the local authorities and information from members of the public. In addition, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection we spoke with six people using the service, three relatives of people using the service, three wellbeing workers and wellbeing assistants, a Trusted Assessor, the Wellbeing Leaders and the Registered Manager. We also reviewed care and medication records of three people, records of accidents and incidents and complaints.

Updated 2 April 2019

About the service:

Wellbeing teams – Greater Manchester is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to adults including supporting people with a diagnosis of dementia.

Not everyone using Wellbeing teams receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 75 people with a regulated activity in Wigan, Lancashire and Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The service was in the process of starting to support people in Thurrock, Essex.

Wellbeing Teams is a self-managed service meaning local teams of wellbeing workers perform many of the tasks relating to staff support, reviews and quality assurance checks normally performed by the registered manager.

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

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they were partners in their care and had control over what support they had. The service without exception respected people’s choices and found innovative and caring ways to both support and protect people in their choices.

People said they knew their wellbeing workers well and that they went above and beyond what would normally be expected of them.

The service put the people they supported and the people who knew them best, at the heart of organising and planning care, so that the best outcomes for people were achieved. Where wellbeing workers felt alternative support or approaches would better help a person these were discussed with the person and people who knew the person well to identify how positive outcomes could be better achieved.

Secure innovative technology was used and embraced by the service to ensure clear and prompt communication between people supported, their relatives and wellbeing workers. This provided immediate reassurance, to all involved in a person’s care, how the person was on any given day and that they were safe.

People were actively encouraged to maintain relationships with friends and remain active members of their wider local community and build new relationships. The service signposted people to events being run by other organisations and where a person’s interests were not being met, the service tried to arrange activities that would interest the person and link the person with a wellbeing worker who shared the same interest.

The service met the characteristics for outstanding in three areas and met the characteristics for good in the remaining two areas we inspected. Therefore, our overall rating for the service after this inspection is outstanding.

Rating at last inspection: This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered with CQC

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration of the service.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through information we receive and future inspections.