Dale Care - Stockton Home Care

Updated 15 April 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 team consisted of an 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 unannounced. Inspection activity started on 15 March 2023 and ended on 27 March 2023. We visited the location’s office on 16 March 2023.

What we did before the inspection

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

During the inspection

We spoke with 8 staff including the registered manager, operations manager, infection control co-ordinator and field supervisor. After our visit to the office, we spoke with 3 care staff by telephone and received e-mail feedback from another member of care staff.

In addition to this we spoke with 5 people who used the service and 6 family members. We looked at policies and documents relating to staff and the management of the service.

Updated 15 April 2023

About the service

Dale Care - Stockton Home Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 71 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

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.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not support anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support:

Staff helped people to live as independently as possible. 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. Risks were assessed. People were supported to take medicines safely. Staff were recruited safely. The provider had faced challenges recruiting staff but was taking steps to improve this. There were enough staff, but we received mixed feedback about the timing and consistency of care and support visits. Some people told us they were not clear when staff should arrive, or they did not arrive when they were expecting them. The registered manager was reviewing how visits were scheduled.

We have made a recommendation about the provider reviewing the deployment of staff to ensure timely, consistent care and ensuring people have clear information about their support visits.

Right Care:

People using the service were able to express their own views. When things went wrong, actions were put into place and lessons learned were shared with staff to improve the standard of care delivered. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. People’s medicines were managed safely, and staff worked with health professionals where they had concerns about people’s health.

Right Culture:

Staff understood and spoke positively about the importance of person-centred care and helping people to live as independently as they wished. The management team understood their roles and responsibilities. The management team sought feedback from people using the service, their relatives, and staff. They were receptive to this input to develop and improve the service. Some people, relatives and staff told us communication could be improved, for example they had difficulty contacting the office. Improvement was being made to the telephone systems to make it easier for people to speak with office staff. The registered manager told us they had good support from the wider organisation and well-being and mental health assistance was offered to staff. The registered manager had links with other agencies and networks to share good practice.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 6 January 2022, and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection took place as this is a newly registered service which we had not yet rated.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation about the provider reviewing the deployment of staff to ensure timely, consistent care and ensuring people have clear information about their support visits.

Follow up

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