Mountbatton Care Ltd

Updated 27 June 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 was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type:

This service provides care and support to 99 people in their own houses or flats and seven people living in ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Not everyone using Mountbatton Care Ltd receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided.

The service had a manager registered with CQC. A registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

We spoke to people using the service on the telephone on 29 May 2019. We also visited the provider’s offices on 30 May and 3 June 2019. We gave the provider two days’ notice of the inspection, to make sure staff and managers would be available for us to speak with.

What we did:

Before the inspection

We reviewed notifications received from the service in line with their legal obligations. This information helps support our inspections. We also asked the local authority for feedback on the service and they told us they had no concerns. Due to technical problems on CQC's side, the provider did not receive and was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with 14 people who use the service. We looked at eight people’s care records and checked records relating to people's medicines. We checked audits and quality assurance reports, incident and accident records, as well as recruitment, supervision and training information.

We spoke with 14 staff members. These included care staff, administrators, care coordinators and managers, as well the operations manager and registered manager.

Updated 27 June 2019

About the service:

Mountbatton Care Ltd is a family-owned and run domiciliary care agency based in Bootle and Southport, providing care to people in their own homes. At the time of inspection, the service was providing home visits to 99 people with different health and care needs, as well as seven people in supported living settings. This included people with a learning disability or autism.

People’s experience of using this service:

People’s experience of Mountbatton Care was good overall. Out of the 14 people we spoke with, two spoke very highly of the service. One person said, “I do not know what I would do without [staff member].” Another person stated, “They are like extended family”. Three people told us about improvement needs to the service, while nine felt that their care was fine.

On balance, the service continued to meet the characteristics of Good. We found that aspects of how the service was led, connected with the community through charitable work and supported people’s diverse needs, could meet the characteristics of Outstanding. It was clear that the service was led by a passionate team looking to make continuous improvements and managers were very responsive to our feedback. However, we identified improvement needs and some regulatory legal requirements had not been met prior to inspection, which limited our ratings, particularly of ‘Well-Led’.

We found that information available to staff before providing care to people varied between different parts of the service and on the electronic care plans that had been introduced. The management team addressed this issue immediately, but it continued to be an area for development.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and provide personalised care. People told us they felt safe overall with the staff support and that calls were on time and never missed.. Staff felt there were enough of them and that generally they had a consistent and reliable team. Staff felt well supported through regular supervision, training and meetings. The service actively involved people and staff in the development of the service through surveys and seeking regular feedback.

The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support, by promoting choice, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent. The service was working with a variety of stakeholders to achieve positive outcomes for people and we saw many very positive compliments about the caring support staff provided.

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection the service was rated Good (2 December 2016).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection that was scheduled based on the previous rating. We inspected to check whether the service had sustained its Good rating.

Follow up:

We will follow up on this inspection through ongoing monitoring of the service, through conversations and notifications.

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