Be Caring Manchester

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm.

At our last assessment we rated this requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. Staff listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to identify and embed good practice.

Staff reported an open culture where they were encouraged to report all concerns. They told us, “Yes, we are encouraged. It is about learning. The office always does something about it” and “Yes, we are encouraged to report. A client fell during a call. They made sure I stayed until the falls team came. They told me to record everything. They take everything seriously and there is a no blame culture.”

We reviewed accident and incident records, and they were responded to appropriately.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care, in which safety was managed or monitored. They made sure there was continuity of care, including when people moved between different services.

New referrals were assessed face to face to ensure people’s needs could be met. Processes were in place to ensure people received continuity of care, for example, when being transferred to hospital.

The electronic care records were live and accessible to staff on their mobile phones. This enabled office staff and staff working in the community to communicate any changes to people’s care needs quickly.

Staff were positive about the communication within the service and reported good relationships with local health and social care professionals. They told us, “This works really well. We have built a good relationship with district nurses” and “Yes, if the care plans change, we get a message to update us. They provide regular updates to support us. The communication is excellent. You can get 10 messages in one day.”

We requested feedback from 11 health and social care professionals. We received 1 response. This was positive and commented on the enthusiasm of the registered manager.

There were safe systems in place to ensure essential information was shared with necessary health and social care professionals. Referrals to outside agencies were made promptly and an on-call system was in place to manage requests out of office hours.

Staff concentrated on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm and neglect. The provider shared concerns quickly and appropriately.

Staff were supported through their induction and training to understand their safeguarding responsibilities. We discussed safeguarding with 19 staff and checked their learning in practice. They understood their responsibilities and how they should report concerns.

We reviewed safeguarding systems and processes, and all concerns had been responded to appropriately.

People’s rights were upheld, and staff training included training in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Equality & Diversity training.

The provider worked with people to understand and manage risks by thinking holistically. Staff provided care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them.

People’s risks were assessed before they started to use the service. Care plans and risk assessments identified key risks and gave clear guidance on how to reduce the risk of avoidable harm.

Staff told us the care plans were clear and provided guidance on how to manage any risks. Staff told us they had time to read care plans. We reviewed 10 care plans. The information to support staff to manage individual tasks was detailed and helped to keep people safe.

The provider detected and controlled potential risks in the care environment.

Risk assessments were in placed to ensure the environment was safe for people and staff. This included information on smoke alarms and how to switch off the water and gas supply in an emergency.

Staff told us they felt safe working in people’s homes and their needs had been considered.

The provider ensured there were enough staff to meet people’s needs safely. Staff were supported and trained to carry out their roles. However, some people and families we spoke with did not always have a positive experience.

The training and induction documentation and processes we reviewed were to a good standard, however feedback from people and their families from the Expert by Experience calls was mixed and some people felt staff training could be improved.

Training records we reviewed showed staff were up to date with their essential training and attended regular updates to ensure their knowledge and skills were maintained. Staff completed surveys once the induction was completed to check they were confident and to assess their experience of the induction. Staff were positive about the induction and training. They told us, “They train you properly. We had a week of intense training that gave me the confidence to work. The training is really good. It helps us to do the job correctly” and “It gave me the confidence. The shadowing was good. They checked I was ready.”

Visit schedules were managed safely and processes were in place to ensure this area was constantly under review. Staff were recruited safely and had the appropriate pre-employment checks in place before employment commenced.

Policies and procedures were in place to manage infection control safely.

Staff received training in infection, prevention and control. Compliance with the infection control policy was observed during monitoring checks in people’s homes where staff demonstrated how to work in a safe and clean way.

We received one concern about infection control from the people we spoke with, and this was responded to quickly with additional training and a spot check of the staff member involved.

Medicines were managed safely. People were supported by staff who followed systems and processes to prescribe, administer, record and store medicines safely. Staff who administered medicines had been trained to do so and regular competency checks were completed to ensure procedures were followed.