About the service The Chocolate Quarter Home Care Service is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The service provides support to adults over and under 65 years, people living with physical disabilities or dementia and people with sensory impairments. At the time of our inspection there were 17 people using the service.
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
This was a targeted inspection to review concerns we received about manual handling, incidents of safeguarding not being reported or investigated, and action not being taken in response to changes in people’s needs.
People who needed support to mobilise had detailed moving and handling plans in place with guidance for staff to follow. The provider employed an occupational therapist (OT) who was available to visit people in their own homes to carry out assessments. The service also referred people to the community OT as appropriate. The OT wrote step by step guidance for staff and was on hand to review people if their needs changed.
Staff had training on manual handling and when new equipment was needed for people, staff were shown how to use it safely. The provider also employed a physiotherapist who was also on hand with the OT to provide people and staff with support.
Incidents of safeguarding were investigated and reported. However, we found for one person the service had not reported concerns in a timely way. Whilst they had worked closely with the person’s GP, healthcare professionals and relatives, the local authority had not been informed. A referral to the local authority had been made prior to our inspection.
Staff received training on safeguarding and dementia and told us they would report any concerns to senior staff or the registered manager. Staff told us they were confident the management would take appropriate action.
People had care plans which were reviewed regularly by the senior team. We observed guidance for one person from the mental health team was not reflected in their care plan. The registered manager acted immediately to update the record. Staff we spoke with told us they were following the guidance from the mental health team in their approach.
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 3 August 2022).
Why we inspected
We undertook this targeted inspection to check on specific concerns we had received about manual handling, incidents of safeguarding not being reported or investigated, and action not being taken in response to changes in people’s needs. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains good.
We use targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.