Dales Community Care Limited

Updated 27 February 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 4 December 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection site visit because it is office based and we needed to make sure that the registered manager would be available.

The inspection was carried out by two adult social care inspectors. An Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people who used the service on 4 and 5 December 2018 to gain their views. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The area of their expertise was in caring for older people and using community based services.

Before we carried out the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. We contacted the local authority adult safeguarding and quality monitoring team as well as Healthwatch, the consumer champion for health and social care, to ask if they had any information to share. We also received feedback from other healthcare professionals who worked with the service.

We referred to the information the provider sent to us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we ask providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection we spoke with 14 people who used the service and four people’s relatives. We spoke with four staff members who provide care and support to people, as well as the registered manager, the training and health and safety manager and the team coordinator.

We looked at care plans and care records for seven people who used the service and the results of a recent satisfaction survey. We checked the arrangements in place for recording and reviewing accidents and incidents and managing medicines. We reviewed four staff's recruitment records, supervision and training records, meeting minutes, audits and a selection of policies and procedures relating to the management of the service.

Updated 27 February 2019

This inspection was announced and took place on 4 December 2018.

Dales Community Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency and provides personal care to people in their own homes. The office is based in the village of Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales and supports people in the local and surrounding areas. At the time of this inspection the service was providing care and support to 68 people.

At the last inspection, the service was rated Good. At this inspection, we found the service remained Good. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

We have made a recommendation regarding the identification and management of risk.

Medicines were managed safely and staff competencies were checked to ensure practice remained safe. The service continued to recruit people appropriately and employed enough, competent staff to care for people. Staff were provided with the right equipment and training to limit the risk of the spread of infection. People who used the service were kept safe from abuse and improper treatment.

People were empowered to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Staff training was up to date and included a range of specialist courses including, end of life care, pressure sore awareness and dementia care. Staff were appropriately supervised and their performance appraised annually. People gave positive feedback about the support they received to maintain a balanced diet and staff communicated effectively with other health care professionals about people’s changing needs.

People received kind and compassionate support and were treated with dignity and respect. People were encouraged to maintain their independence and staff cared for people in a way that protected their dignity and privacy.

Care plans contained person-centred information and provided staff with clear guidance to care for people in a way they preferred.

The registered manager actively sought the views of people who used the service and any concerns raised were addressed in a timely way and to people’s satisfaction.

The registered manager continued to play an active role in the running of the service and undertook quality checks and monitoring to ensure the delivery of high-quality care. The registered manager reviewed incident and accidents and discussed lessons learnt at staff meetings.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.