Bay Care Domiciliary Care Ltd was rated Good overall across the three key questions inspected (Safe, Caring, Well-led), representing a decline from its previous Outstanding rating published in 2018. Key concerns centred on unmet preferences for same-sex care, variable visit punctuality, insufficient travel time between appointments, and communication barriers with some internationally recruited staff.
Concerns (6)
moderatePerson-centred care: “They only send males. She doesn't like having a male carer and she won't let the male carer do her personal care, so I end up having to do it.”
moderateCommunication with families
: “I have reservations about some of some staff's English, some don't know what slippers are. I have to explain everything to them.”
moderateStaffing levels: “We get 5 minutes travel time between clients, sometimes I'll have to travel up to 12 minutes between clients and to do this I have to rely on clients not using the full time of their visit.”
minorMissed or late visits: “They arranged to come between 8am and 8.30am but sometimes it can be 9.45am.”
minorGovernance: “To be honest I've given up talking to them. The management is not good and very disorganised.”
minorStaff competency: “One staff member we spoke with said they had not had their medicines competency assessed.”
Strengths
· Strong safeguarding awareness among staff with effective escalation processes and transparent engagement with healthcare professionals.
· Electronic medicines management system with alerts for missed administrations; only 6 errors recorded across 235,000 medication visits in 12 months.
· Partnership with Devon and Somerset Fire Service resulting in over 330 referrals and award recognition.
· Implementation of Herbert Protocol for people living with dementia who go missing.
· Numerous examples of staff going above and beyond, including tailored care continuity to address self-neglect and referrals for specialist equipment.