Oceans Care Services Limited

Updated 14 September 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 checked 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.

This inspection took place on 25 July 2018 and was unannounced. We gave the service 5 days’ notice of the inspection site visits because some of the people using it could not consent to a home visit from an inspector, which meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this. Inspection site visit activity started on 25 July 2018 and ended on the same day. It included visiting people in their own homes and speaking to people, relatives and staff there. We visited the office location on 25 July 2018 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records, policies and procedures.

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Before the inspection the provider was asked to complete a provider information return (PIR). This 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 took this into account when we planned our inspection and when we made the judgements in this report.

As part of planning the inspection we checked if the provider had sent us any notifications. These contain details of events and incidents the provider is required to notify us about by law, including unexpected deaths and injuries occurring to people receiving care. We also looked at any information that had been sent to us by the commissioners of the service and Healthwatch. We also examined the information we hold in relation to the provider and the service. We used this information to plan what areas we were going to focus on during our inspection visit.

During our inspection we spoke with three people who used the service, two relatives, the registered manager, two care staff. We reviewed some aspects of the care records of three people and other documentation relating to the management of the service.

Updated 14 September 2018

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. Not everyone using Oceans Care 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.

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. There was a registered manger in post at the time of our inspection.

People were supported by staff who were aware of their responsibilities to raise any concerns they may have in terms of people's health and wellbeing. Where safeguarding concerns had been raised, they had been responded to an acted on appropriately. Staff were aware of the risks to people and were provided with information to assist them in managing those risks safely. People were supported to take their medicines as prescribed and staff competency checks were in

place to ensure staff followed correct procedures. Accidents and incidents were reported and responded to well.

Pre-assessment processes in place provided staff with the information they needed to support people effectively and to meet their needs. Staff had received an induction and training that provided them with the skills to meet people's needs. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People said staff were kind and caring and were respectful of their choices. People's preferences were taken into account, and staff ensured people’s privacy and dignity was maintained. People were supported by staff who knew them well and what was important to them. People were supported to maintain their independence. There was a system in place to record people's complaints which people and relatives knew about. Everyone we spoke with said that the service would respond well if they made a complaint.

The staff felt supported by the management team and people told us they felt the service was well led. Audits were in place to assess the quality of care of various areas within the service and the registered manager had a good oversight of people and their needs. The registered manager had a clear vision for the development and growth of the service and had recently invested in new technology to assist with this.