Ocean Healthcare

Updated 26 January 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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector, an assistant 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 homes.

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

We gave the service 24 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 2 November 2022 and ended on 29 November 2022. We visited the location’s office on 3 November 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information within our systems and 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 14 members of staff, including the registered manager and senior leaders. We spoke to the managing director who is also the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We spoke with 12 people’s relatives and sought feedback from 7 health professionals. Whilst we did not receive any feedback from the health professionals we contacted, the registered manager shared feedback that had been sent directly to the service. We reviewed a range of records including 5 peoples care records, recruitment and training records, quality assurance records, policies and a range of qualitative information the provider shared with us.

Updated 26 January 2023

About the service

Ocean healthcare is a domiciliary care service providing personal and nurse led care to children and adults in their own homes. People supported by the service often had complex, and sometimes life limiting, conditions. At the time of our inspection there were 42 people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People’s care plans were person centred and contained detailed information about them as a person, their home lives and what was important to them. Parents told us they felt confident that staff had the skills and experience required for caring for children with complex medical conditions and trusted care staff to care for their children. One parent was able to take a holiday for the first time in 23 years, because they felt confident in the team caring for their child. Staff supported families to enjoy outings and spend time with each other. One person’s relative said, “They support us not to be isolated. I can relax when we go out, they will take [child] off so I can spend time with our other children.”

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

Care was personalised and bespoke to each individual person receiving care. People were supported to eat and drink and maintain a balanced diet and staff supported people to be as independent as possible and to develop skills. People’s care plans contained specific information about their needs in relation to the Accessible Information Standard, including where people responded to touch, rather than verbal prompts, to communicate. Staff communicated with people in the ways that suited them.

Risks were assessed and monitored and detailed risk management plans were in place. People’s relatives felt confident that staff had the skills needed to manage people’s risks safely. Staff were recruited safely and there were enough staff to meet people’s needs, effective systems and processes were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse. Staff were matched to people to ensure they not only had the clinical skills required to meet their needs but that they also had the right personality to meet their emotional needs. One person’s relative told us, “Staff were matched really well, the team slots right in with the family.” Staff celebrated people’s achievements and special occasions. For example, one member of staff made a power point with pictures of one child taking part in lots of exciting activities to celebrate their birthday. Staff respected the privacy and dignity of both the person they cared for and their family.

Innovative training methods were being used to make sure staff delivered care in the right way and the provider had purchased specialist training aids to support staff to develop their skills in a learning environment. New staff completed training specific to the person they would be working with. The registered manager had recruited qualified nursing staff with different areas of expertise, including learning disabilities, mental health and paediatric care. This meant staff were supported by qualified staff with specialist knowledge.

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.

Ocean Healthcare’s culture was driven by its organisational values. These were developed through team exercises and examining which values staff felt best represented the service and were woven through all aspects of the business operation. Staff spoke proudly about the values and how they made them a ‘living’ part of their everyday work. For leaders and staff, upholding the ‘caring’ aspect of their values meant not only caring for people using the service but for each other. For example, the provider recognised that staff found it difficult to obtain closure after supporting a child at the end of their life, especially where they had been supporting them for several years, so they purchased a piece of rural woodland with a stream running through it for staff teams to use for quiet reflection.

The provider had established a ‘quality advisory committee’ which met quarterly to analyse the quality and safety of the service being provided. The membership of the committee included external professionals and leaders invited challenge and scrutiny in order to drive improvement. The structure of the governance and quality management systems had been expanded and strengthened and consisted of a number of groups at different levels of management all contributing to the governance and oversight of the safety and quality of care being provided.

Ocean Healthcare is actively involved in the local community and has supported both groups of people and individuals through a number of initiatives. The managing director told us, “We believe we have a responsibility to help make where we live a richer place through what we do but also by giving back where we can.

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 the service at the previous premises was requires improvement, published on 6 May 2020.

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.