Academy Care

Updated 24 June 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 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 5 June 2023 and ended on 16 June 2023. We visited the location’s office on 6 June 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and we sought feedback from the local authority. 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited the office location on 6 June 2023. During the inspection we talked to the registered manager, the operations manager, the recruitment manager, care planners, care delivery staff and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We received feedback from 51 staff through face-to-face conversations and email questionnaires.

We spoke to 4 people who use the service and 9 family members.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care records and medication records and 4 staff files in relation to recruitment, staff support and supervision. A variety of records relating to the governance and management of the service were reviewed.

Updated 24 June 2023

About the service

Academy Care is a domiciliary care agency providing support for people in their own homes in and around Wakefield. Not everyone using 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. At the time of our inspection there were 64 people using the service.

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.

Right Support

People were protected from avoidable harm because staff were trained to recognise signs of abuse and knew who to report this to if they had concerns. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care

People's care and support plans reflected their range of needs and they received care that supported their identified needs. People's personal risks were assessed and clear information given to staff on how to minimise those risks. People’s care was personalised and promoted their dignity and independence. Staff received appropriate training to deliver good quality care and support.

Right Culture

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. There was good management oversight of the service, supported by effective feedback and quality checks. The service was supported by a comprehensive suite of electronic care planning and information management systems. Staff were valued by the provider and management team and they were recognised for their achievements. There was an open, transparent organisational culture that was focussed on supporting staff and continuous service improvement.

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 requires improvement (published 13 October 2021).

Why we inspected

We carried out this focussed inspection looking at the safe and well-led key questions because we needed to follow up on our last inspection where the service was rated overall as requires improvement. During the inspection a decision was made to review the key questions of effective and responsive.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Academy Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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