16 May 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Delta Care - Trafford is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. People receiving care had a range of support needs; some people had long-term health conditions.
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. At the time of this inspection the agency was supporting 125 people; 110 received help with aspects of personal care.
People's experience of using this service and what we found
People told us they felt safe. Medicines were administered safely however, we have made a recommendation that staff receive further training in relation to the administration of medicines. The manager addressed this during the inspection.
Staff understood the risks to people's safety and wellbeing and what they should do to keep people safe. Risk assessments contained basic information to help minimise risk.
People we spoke with told us staff were usually on time and they had not experienced any missed care visits.
Safe systems of recruitment were followed to ensure staff were safe to work with vulnerable people. Recruitment processes helped to ensure staff were of suitable character and had relevant experience.
There were safe infection control procedures in place including enough supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). The provider had infection control measures in place and people told us staff wore PPE.
Staff had good relationships with other health professionals and liaised with stakeholders to ensure people received appropriate support.
Staff were supported with an induction, supervision and training, to ensure they had the knowledge and skills to support people. Spot checks and competency checks were carried out to ensure staff practice kept people safe.
People and their relatives told us staff knew their needs and preferences well. Staff were available to support people to stay in touch with those who were important to them, and to follow their interests, where this was an agreed part of their care. People and relatives knew how to complain and told us any concerns they had raised had been dealt with to their satisfaction.
The manager monitored standards of care delivery with a range of quality checks and audits, although we identified these needed to be improved to ensure more robust oversight of the service. Policies and procedures were in place to guide staff practice.
Feedback from people, their relatives and staff was positive. One person said, “I have already recommended [them] to others.” Staff told us they were well-supported and felt part of a 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
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 28 August 2020.)
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 changed from requires improvement to 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 Delta Care – Trafford 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.