Wessex Care Community Services

Updated 22 March 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

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector 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 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

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 20 February 2023 and ended on 2 March 2023. We visited the location's office on 22 February 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people and 6 relatives about their experiences of care received. We also spoke with 4 members of staff, the head of care, operations director and business director. We reviewed care records for 3 people including medicines records, quality monitoring information, feedback received about the service, accidents and incidents, 5 staff recruitment files, supervision records, training information and policies and procedures.

We also emailed 3 healthcare professionals for feedback about the service but did not receive any replies.

Updated 22 March 2023

About the service

Wessex Care Community Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 13 people at the time of inspection. The service provides support to adults over and under 65 years, people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory impairment and people living with dementia.

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 expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

People had support that met their needs from a consistent team of care staff. Policies and procedures were in place for staff to work safely and in a person-centred way. Risk management systems were in place and regularly reviewed so changes could be made when needed.

Right Care:

People had care that reflected their preferences and wishes. They knew their care workers well and felt comfortable and safe receiving support. There were enough staff available to carry out timely scheduled visits and people told us staff never missed a visit. Staff had been recruited safely.

People had their medicines as prescribed and staff had training on how to administer medicines safely. Staff had training on safeguarding and understood how to keep people safe from avoidable harm.

Right Culture:

Staff told us there was an open, inclusive culture which meant they felt safe to raise any concern or share their ideas. Communication was good and we were told there was good teamwork. People, relatives and staff all thought the service was well managed, they felt able to approach the management at any time.

Quality monitoring systems were in place which helped monitor and improve quality and safety. Incidents and accidents were recorded and reviewed, and staff worked in partnership with healthcare professionals where needed. All people and relatives we spoke with told us they would recommend this service to others.

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 30 January 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

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