Belong at Home Didsbury

Updated 14 September 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. 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

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. The registered manager was also registered for Belong at Home Warrington.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 14 August 2019 when we visited the office location. We made phone calls to people supported by Belong at Home Didsbury, a relative and a member of staff after visiting the office location.

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 and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection-

We spoke with two people supported by Belong at Home Didsbury and one relative. We spoke with five members of staff including the registered manager, senior carer, care workers and the practice development facilitator.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and two medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 14 September 2019

About the service

Belong at Home Didsbury is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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. Three people were receiving support with their personal care at the time of our inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People and relatives were very positive about the support they received and the kind and caring staff team. Staff visited at the agreed times and there had been no missed visits.

Staff were also positive about working for Belong at Home Didsbury. They felt well supported and received the training required for their role. Staff were safely recruited.

Clear care plans and risk assessments identified the support people wanted, what they were able to do for themselves and what the staff were to do at each visit. People and relatives were involved in agreeing and reviewing their care plans.

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.

Where identified in their care plan people received support with their medicines, food and health needs.

The registered manager had clear oversight of the service. They reviewed records monthly and annual observations of staff competencies were completed. Learning from incidents at any Belong service was shared with all Belong registered managers through regular registered manager’s meetings.

People, relatives and staff said the registered manager was approachable and available for any advice or queries they had.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 22 August 2018 and this is the first inspection. Prior to this the domiciliary care service was part of the registration for Belong Morris Feinmann care home based at the same address. As such the domiciliary care service was included in the inspection at Belong Morris Feinmann. The overall rating for the care home, including the domiciliary care service, was good (published 8 August 2018). We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.