Ivy Care (Reading & Newbury)

Updated 5 December 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

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

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

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We also wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

We visited the office location and completed two home visits on 17 October 2019. We completed surveys of people, their relatives and staff we were unable to speak with on the day of our site visit between 18 October and 28 October 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information the registered manager 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 also reviewed the notifications received from the provider. The law requires providers to send us notifications about certain events that happen during the running of a service. We contacted local authority teams engaged with the service, including safeguarding and quality assurance teams. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people who used the service and 14 relatives of people who used the service. We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager and 13 care staff. We reviewed care plans of eight people, including risk assessments relating to skin care, falls management, and nutrition. We reviewed the daily progress and medicine administration records of six other people. We looked at eight staff recruitment files, together with the provider’s training and supervision schedules. We also examined other documents relating to the management of the service, including policies, procedures and quality assurance documents.

After the inspection

We spoke with four health and social care professional. We continued to seek clarification from the provider about evidence found during the site visit and considered further documentation provided by the registered manager.

Updated 5 December 2019

About the service

Good Oaks Reading is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The service supported older people, people living with dementia and people with a physical disability.

Not everyone who uses the service receives personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal support with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection it the service was providing personal care to 33 people living in Reading, Henley-on-Thames, Chieveley, Newbury and surrounding areas.

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

People experienced excellent consistency and continuity of care from a stable staff team which had a significant impact on the quality of people’s wellbeing and consistently achieved successful outcomes.

Without exception people and relatives told us they felt fully consulted, empowered, listened to and praised the staff for their outstanding support. Staff were extremely responsive, consistently placed people and their families at the heart of their service and went the extra mile to address people’s needs.

The registered manager and staff were passionate about creating an inclusive family environment within the service. People and relatives consistently told us that the extra-ordinary efforts of staff to include them in social events, made them feel special and that they had an extended family.

Staff skilfully encouraged social contact and companionship, which ensured people maintained relationships important to them, which helped to protect them from the risk of social isolation and loneliness.

People were protected from avoidable harm by staff who had received appropriate training and knew how to recognise and report abuse.

Staff understood and provided the support people required to keep them safe and protect them from identified risks, such as malnutrition, falling, choking, developing pressure sores and infections.

There were enough suitable staff to consistently meet people's needs and provide safe care.

People received their prescribed medicines safely from staff who had completed the required training and been assessed to be competent.

Staff had the necessary skills to meet people's needs and were well supported by registered manager to develop their knowledge in line with good practice.

People had the necessary support to eat and drink in line with their needs and preferences.

Staff worked well with people, families and health and social care agencies to support people's wellbeing. People's health was effectively monitored by staff to ensure people received the right support from the wider health and social care network.

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.

Staff treated people with kindness and respect. People were supported to express their views about their care and their wishes were respected. People's privacy and dignity were respected and promoted during the delivery of their care.

Staff supported people to raise concerns and complaints, which were responded to effectively to improve people's experience of the care provided. The service was not supporting anyone with end of life care. However, the registered manager had provided people with the opportunity to discuss their wishes and preferences in this regard, which were subject to regular review.

There was an open and positive culture within the service, which enabled effective communication with people, their families and other stakeholders. The registered manager effectively engaged with people, staff and professionals to seek their views, which were used to drive service improvements. Quality assurance processes were in place to ensure the provider had oversight of the service performance. The service effectively collaborated with key organisations to ensure the safe and effective delivery of people’s care.

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 29/10/2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned comprehensive inspection.

Follow up

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