Allcare

Updated 1 October 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector between 20 July 2022 and 04 August 2022. An Expert by Experience spoke with people and their relatives over the telephone. 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 homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. Inspection activity started on 20 July 2022 and ended on 04 August 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service and seven relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager and reviewed a range of records, relating to the management of the service, including staff recruitment, induction and supervision. policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 1 October 2022

About the service

Allcare is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where people receive personal care we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting a total of 27 people, all of whom received support with personal care.

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

People told us they felt safe and were happy with the service they received. The registered manager and staff were aware of their responsibility to raise safeguarding concerns and liaise with the local authority. The registered manager worked well with the local authority, CQC and other professionals. Safeguarding incidents, and complaints were investigated, and formal apologies had been provided.

Due to reasons outside the provider's control they had been delayed in providing information requested to help us evaluate how well they monitored the service. Review of the providers systems to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service found these needed developing to ensure they were effective at identifying and driving improvement within the service.

At our previous inspection in April 2021 the provider's system used to arrange, and monitor visit times was not being utilised effectively to ensure people were receiving a consistent and reliable service. Analysis of a spreadsheet of planned vs actual visits for the month of June 2022 confirmed people were receiving a satisfactory service. Staff were allocated the same people in a geographical area to ensure consistency and reduce travel time and delays due to traffic. People and their relatives confirmed staff were usually were on time, within the agreed timeframe. Where on the odd occasion carers were running late people told us they were called to let them know.

People and their relatives told, us the registered manager and office staff were approachable when they contacted the office and responded to requests for information. Complaints were investigated and responded to in a timely manner.

Medicines and risks to people who used the service were managed safely.

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 Good (published 20 April 2021). At our last inspection we recommended the provider needed to review its use of technology to improve the promptness of calls and drive improvements. At this inspection we found improvements had been made to ensure people received their calls within the expected timeframe.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.

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 remained the same based on the findings of this inspection.

Follow up

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