The Business Centre

Updated 6 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

Two inspectors visited the service and an Expert by Experience made phone calls to people and relatives off site. 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 we needed to be sure the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 10 May 2023 and ended on 18 May 2023. We visited the location’s office on 10 May 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 6 people who used the service and 3 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 9 members of staff including the registered manager, senior staff and care staff and received feedback from commissioners at the local authority.

We reviewed a range of records, including 4 people's care records. We looked at 4 staff files in relation to recruitment and staff support and a range of records relating to how the service operated and was managed.

Updated 6 June 2023

About the service

The Business Centre is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to older people and younger adults with a range of needs including people with physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection the service was providing the regulated activity personal care to 50 people. 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

Quality monitoring and checks had not always been completed to provide effective managerial oversight of the service. The provider acknowledged improvements were needed to fully embed the governance systems they had developed.

Some people told us their call times could be better managed. They didn’t always know when staff would arrive for their care appointment. Medicines were administered safely by staff trained in medicines management.

Risks to people were being managed safely. We found risk assessments had improved since the last inspection and staff were recruited safely. Staff received training and felt supported by the management team.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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 Requires Improvement (published 30 September 2022) and there was a breach of regulation 19. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of this regulation.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

Follow up

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