Briars Homecare Services Limited

Updated 15 March 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of one adult social care inspector.

Service and service type:

Briars Homecare Services Limited is domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to individuals within their own homes throughout the local community.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

This comprehensive inspection visit took place on 05 March 2019 and was announced. The provider was given 24 hours' notice because the location provides a care service to people who lived in the community. We needed to be sure that we could access the office premises.

Inspection site visit activity started on 05 March 2019 and ended on 05 March 2019. We visited the office location on 05 March 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Before our inspection we completed our planning tool and reviewed the information we held on the service. This included notifications we had received from the provider, about incidents that affect the health, safety and welfare of people supported by the service and previous inspection reports.

We checked to see if any information concerning the care and welfare of people supported by the service had been received. We also contacted the commissioning department at Lancashire County Council. This helped us to gain a balanced overview of what people experienced accessing the service.

As part of the inspection we used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Returns. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection visit we spoke with a range of people about the service. They included seven people supported by the service and three relatives. We also went to the Briars Homecare Services Limited office and spoke with a range of people about the service. They included the registered manager, assistant manager, care manager and three staff members.

We looked at the care records of two people, recruitment records of two staff members, the training matrix, arrangements for staff supervision and appraisal and records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 15 March 2019

About the service: The Briars Homecare Service offers domiciliary care and support to a range of people in their own homes. The service operates from an office base in a residential area of Thornton-Cleveleys that is central to the area that users of the service live. At the time of our inspection visit the service supported 90 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

People supported by the service received personalised care which was responsive to their individual needs. Staff had a good understanding of the care and support people required and provided this with care and patience.

People’s care and support had been planned proactively and in partnership with them. People felt consulted and listened to about how their care would be delivered. Care plans were organised and had identified the care and support people required. We found they were informative about care people had received.

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.

Procedures were in place to record safeguarding concerns, accidents and incidents and take necessary action as required. We saw the registered manager had cooperated and worked in partnership with the local authority when safeguarding concerns had been brought to their attention. People supported by the service told us they felt safe in the care of staff who supported them.

People spoken with referred to the registered manager and her staff as kind and caring people. They told us they liked the staff who supported them who provided a reliable service which didn’t let them down.

People were supported to have access to healthcare professionals and their healthcare needs had been met. The service worked in partnership with other organisations to ensure they followed good practice and people in their care were safe.

The service had a complaints procedure which was made available to people and their family when they commenced using the service. The people we spoke with told us they were happy with their service and had no complaints.

The registered manager used a variety of methods to assess and monitor the quality of the service. These included regular audits and satisfaction surveys to seek their views about the service provided.

Rating at last inspection: Good. (Report published 22 February 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: The next scheduled inspection will be in keeping with the overall rating. We will continue to monitor information we receive from and about the service. We may inspect sooner if we receive concerning information about the service.

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