Reliacare

Updated 23 June 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 was carried out by one 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

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 25 May 2023 and ended on 1 June 2023. We visited the location’s office on 25 May 2023. We contacted people who use the service, people’s relatives and staff between 25 May 2023 and 1 June 2023 to gather their views about the service.

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. We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 20 October 2022 to plan the inspection and inform our judgements. 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 help plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager of the service and the provider’s nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We spoke with 2 members of the management team and looked at the care records for 7 people. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment and training. We also looked at the staff training matrix and a range of records relating to the management of the service. We contacted 7 people who used the service and the relatives of 5 people to gather their views. We also contacted 5 staff to gather their views.

Updated 23 June 2023

About the service

Reliacare is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The service supports people living in Barrow, Ulverston and the surrounding areas. There were 50 people receiving personal care when we inspected.

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

People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff were trained in how to identify and report abuse and how to provide people’s care safely. The registered manager had identified and managed potential risks to people’s safety. There were enough staff to support people. Staff supported people, as they needed, to take their medicines. Staff followed robust infection prevention and control procedures and people were protected from the risk of infection. The registered manager learned from any incidents and shared learning with the staff team to ensure people’s safety.

People received person-centred care which met their needs. The provider had systems to monitor the quality of the service. The service managers worked with staff providing people’s care. People said the service was well-managed and they would recommend it. Staff worked cooperatively with other services to ensure people received the care and support they needed.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good, (report published 20 December 2017).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

The service had not been subject to a formal regulatory review since the inspection in 2017. We undertook a focused inspection to seek assurance people continued to receive safe, high-quality care.

We reviewed the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Reliacare on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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