The Local Care Company (Bolton) Limited

Updated 28 July 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection site visit took place on 08 June 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure someone would be in the office to facilitate the inspection.

The inspection visit was conducted by two adult social care inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Telephone calls were made to people using the service and staff between 10 and 13 June 2018.

Prior to the inspection the service completed a Provider Information Return (PIR), which is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We also looked at any information we held about the service. This included any notifications that had been received, a notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to send us by law. We also spoke to the commissioning team at the local authority and they did not raise any concerns about the service.

As part of the inspection we spoke to the nominated individual, the manager, three staff and eight people receiving support from the agency.

We looked at nine care files, five staff files and four Medication Administration Records (MAR). We also reviewed other records held by the service including; training information, policies and procedures and audit documentation. We used all this information to inform our judgement.

Updated 28 July 2018

We carried out an announced inspection of The Local Care Company on 08 June 2018. We also gathered the views of people who used the service and staff members via telephone calls between the 10 and 13 June 2018.

The Local Care Company is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Not everyone using The Local Care Company receives regulated activity; the 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 consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of the inspection, there were 74 people receiving a regulated service from The Local Care Company.

We last inspected the service in June 2016 when we rated the overall service to be good. Although the service was rated as good overall, it was rated as requires improvement in the responsive key line of enquiry (KLOE). This was because we identified a breach of the regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014; person centred care.

Following the last inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve the key question; responsive to at least good. We received this in July 2016. During this inspection we found the provider had addressed the previous regulatory breach and was now meeting all requirements of the regulations.

At this inspection the rating for the responsive KLOE had improved to good. We found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

At the time of our inspection, there was a manager in post who had not yet been registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), however we saw evidence that this application had been submitted and their application was on going. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

All the people spoken with told us they were safe because of the care they received. We saw people were supported by a consistent staff team and they told us staff were punctual and reliable.

Risks to people had been assessed and were managed safely. People's health, dietary and fluid needs were identified and met. Processes were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse.

We found medicines were managed safely. The service had effective systems in place to ensure medicines were given appropriately.

Staff continued to receive an effective induction in to the service and had ongoing training and support to meet the requirements of their role.

The staff were familiar with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and acted in accordance with this legislation.

People told us that the staff respected their privacy and dignity and promoted their independence where possible.

People were encouraged to make decisions and choices about their care and these were respected by the staff supporting them. They spoke fondly of the staff and regarded them as caring and considerate people.

People received personalised care that was responsive to their needs and care plans were complimented by electronic guidance which could be inputted and updated as changes in care needs occurred to ensure staff had access to the most up to date guidance.

People and staff were familiar with the complaints process and we saw complaints had been handled efficiently to support the complaint to be resolved.

People and staff spoke positively about the service and there were sufficient systems in place to ensure safe and effective care was provided.