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Archived: Comfort Call Durham

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Shotton Hall Business Centre, Old Shotton, Peterlee, County Durham, SR8 2PH (0191) 518 1159

Provided and run by:
Comfort Call Limited

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 20 January 2015

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.

We inspected Comfort Call (Durham) on 15 July 2014 and the inspection was unannounced. Our last inspection took place in January 2014 and we found the service was meeting all essential standards. Comfort Call (Durham) is a domiciliary care agency that is registered to provide care and support for everyday tasks and personal care. At the time of our inspection the agency had approximately 350 people using their service.

Our inspection team consisted of two Adult Social Care  inspectors and one expert by experience who spoke with people who used the service. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before our inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service including notifications and safeguarding concerns. We were not aware of any concerns from the local authority, local Healthwatch or commissioners. We asked the provider to complete a pre-inspection provider information return and used this to inform some of our planning.

During the inspection we spoke with 40 people who used the service, five relatives of people  who used the service and five staff  who cared for and supported people.

This report was written during the testing phase of our new approach to regulating adult social care services. After this testing phase, inspection of consent to care and treatment, restraint, and practice under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) was moved from the key question ‘Is the service safe?’ to ‘Is the service effective?’

The ratings for this location were awarded in October 2014. They can be directly compared with any other service we have rated since then, including in relation to consent, restraint, and the MCA under the ‘Effective’ section. Our written findings in relation to these topics, however, can be read in the ‘Is the service safe’ sections of this report.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 20 January 2015

We inspected Comfort Call Durham on 15 July 2014 and the inspection was unannounced. Our last inspection took place in January 2014 and we found the service was meeting all the essential standards.

Comfort Call Durham is registered to provide personal care to people who need assistance but want to continue living in their own homes.

The service had a registered manager who had been in post since January 2012. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to  manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider.

People who used the service told us they felt safe and staff knew what they doing.

We found staff received training relevant to their role and pertinent to the people they cared for.

We found arrangements were in place to support people who would find making decisions difficult. This meant people were cared for in a way they preferred.

People’s complaints and comments were responded to by the manager to ensure the service was responsive to people’s needs. One person said "Mother is very happy with the service. The carers know what to do and are polite and respectful" and another person said "The carers are very good".

We found the manager undertook auditing to monitor and improve the quality of the service.

At the time of our inspection there were approximately 350 people using the service.