The Care Quality Commission
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We Care Chorlton

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

517 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton, Manchester, M21 0UF (0161) 945 9493

Provided and run by:
Northstar Home Care Limited

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

We Care Chorlton is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 80 people with personal care. The inspection was prompted by intelligence received from the local authority about safeguarding concerns. 3 people had also requested a new provider in the 3 months prior to the inspection because of poor care. A decision was made to inspect the service to follow up on these concerns. The service has been rated requires improvement. We identified five breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, staffing, safe recruitment and good governance. The organisation of people's visits was not managed safely. Staff were not deployed in sufficient numbers. Staff were not recruited safely. The provider had failed to follow the procedures required to assure themselves that staff were safe to work with vulnerable people. Medicines management needed to improve. Information to guide staff was not always up to date. This increased the risk of people not getting their medicines when they needed them. Care planning and risk assessments needed to improve. Risks had not been assessed and reviewed regularly to ensure staff had the correct guidance. The provider was working closely with the local council to make changes. A new office team was already in place, a new manager had been recruited and investment had been made in new digital systems. Any new issues identified in the inspection were added to their improvement plan. Some areas of the service were performing well. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded.

29 April 2021

During an inspection looking at part of the service

About the service

Northstar Home Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of inspection the agency were supporting four people with aspects of personal care. This included help with tasks related to personal hygiene and food preparation.

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

Comprehensive risk assessments were completed by the provider to enable staff to support people safely. Care plans were person centred and recorded what a good day and a bad day was for the individual. People were supported by a regular staff team.

The provider and registered manager kept in regular contact with people using the service to gain their views. The provider had implemented a new monitoring system which gave them clear oversight of the service.

The provider had implemented a COVID-19 satisfaction survey. This gave the provider insight into how people were feeling during the pandemic and feedback on the support they had received.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service at the previous location was requires improvement (published 19 September 2019). There were multiple breaches identified. The breaches from the inspection were followed up by a targeted inspection (published 23 September 2020). At the last inspection improvements had been made however there remained breaches in regulation 17 and regulation 19. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe, effective and well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Northstar Home Care Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.