Bowland Care Services

Updated 7 June 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:

This inspection visit was carried out by one adult social care inspector. The adult social care inspector was supported by an Expert by Experience who made telephone calls to people and relatives to gain feedback about people’s experiences. 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 adults living in their own homes.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit to be sure the registered provider, staff and people they supported would be available to speak with us.

Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 30 April 2019. We visited the office location on 30 April 2019 to see the management team and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. On 01 May 2019, we carried out home visits to three people and made telephone calls to people and relatives. On 09 May 2019, we visited the office to speak with the management team and to provide feedback.

What we did:

We reviewed information we held about the service. This included previous inspection reports and notifications submitted by the provider related to incidents, accidents, health and safety and safeguarding concerns which affect the health and wellbeing of people who lived at the home. We also spoke with the Lancashire County Council contracts and commissioning team, and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. This allowed us to gain information related to the quality and safety of service being provided.

Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We reviewed the information submitted by the provider to plan and guide our inspection. We used our planning tool to collate and analyse this information to help us plan our inspection visit.

During the inspection, we spoke with six people and seven relatives’ by telephone. We also visited three people in their own home to discuss their care and review their records with their consent. We spoke with three members of care staff, the care manager and the registered provider. Additionally, we spoke with three health and social care professionals about their experiences of working with the provider.

To gather information, we looked at a variety of records. This included care records related to four people. We also looked at other information related to the management of the service. We did this to ensure the provider had oversight of the service and to ensure the service was appropriately managed.

Updated 7 June 2019

About the service:

Bowland Care Services is a small family run domiciliary care service. The service operates from Garstang in Lancashire. Support is provided to people with differing needs in their own homes. The service can provide emergency support and accepts referrals from both individuals and the local authority. At the time of the inspection Bowland Care Services was providing regulated activity to 27 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

We were repeatedly told by people and relatives that Bowland Care Services continued to be very caring. Staff were motivated to make a difference and cared for people in ways that exceeded expectations.

There were high levels of satisfaction amongst people and relatives who used the service. Everyone we spoke with said they would recommend the service to others. The service was described as “exceptional” and “head and shoulders above the rest”. People repeatedly told us staff had made a difference in their lives and said staff routinely went above and beyond to ensure people were happy and safe.

The service was an important part of the community. The service had been recently awarded by the community for their efforts in making a difference to both the people they supported and the wider community. Professionals praised the strong links established by the management team within the community to improve the health and well-being of people in general. Their support was described an outstanding and invaluable.

People and relatives told us the service was very well-led. Leadership within the service was strong and focussed upon striving for and maintaining a caring, responsive and person-centred service.

The registered provider understood the importance of tackling social isolation and developing community links. People were supported to develop and maintain relationships and be active within their community.

There was an emphasis on multi-agency working to meet people’s health care needs. People, relatives and professionals said individuals who used Bowland Care Services developed and retained independence and experienced positive outcomes.

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.

There was an emphasis on ensuring people were supported by an experienced and qualified staff team who knew people well. People said they were assured staff were experienced and appropriately trained.

People told us they felt safe when being supported by staff. The registered provider understood the importance of creating a culture where people were free from abuse and harassment. Staff were aware of their responsibilities in reporting and responding to abuse and said they would not hesitate in reporting any unsafe or abusive practice.

We found risk was appropriately managed and addressed to minimise the risk of possible harm. When risks had been identified good practice guidance had been referred to, to promote safe and effective practice.

The registered provider worked proactively to ensure individual concerns were identified and acted upon before they became a complaint. People told us they had never had any reason to complain but were confident any complaints would be dealt with effectively and professionally should they ever need to.

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

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection the service was rated good (published 16 November 2016). At this inspection carried out in May 2019, we found the service had improved to outstanding.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned and scheduled 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.