Christchurch Care Agency received a Good rating across all five key questions at its September 2016 inspection, with 160 people receiving personal care in their own homes. The service demonstrated strong safeguarding practice, consistent staffing, person-centred care planning, and effective governance and quality assurance systems.
Strengths
· Staff consistently recognised signs of abuse and followed safeguarding reporting procedures; safeguarding was mandatory in induction.
· Sufficient staffing levels maintained with contingency cover available 7am–11pm for short-notice absences.
· Robust recruitment including enhanced DBS checks and written references ensured only suitable staff were employed.
· Medicines administration records were completed and signed appropriately; spot checks verified compliance.
· Staff placed on Care Certificate training and received competency-based shadowing before solo working.
Christchurch Cares, a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 100 people, was rated Good across all five key questions at its May 2019 inspection. The service demonstrated consistent, person-centred care delivery with well-trained staff, robust governance systems, and strong family involvement, with only a minor gap noted in end-of-life care planning documentation.
Concerns (1)
minorEnd-of-life care: “Care plans did not contain detailed information around end of life. We discussed this with the registered manager who told us they had difficulty in obtaining information as people were reluctant to talk about this”
Strengths
· People experienced a good reliable service with compassionate, kind and well-trained staff and no missed calls reported
· Robust safeguarding processes in place with appropriate investigation and action taken when concerns were raised
· Consistent staffing with thorough recruitment processes including DBS checks and references
· Medicines managed safely with daily electronic records and systems for storage and safe disposal
· Detailed, regularly reviewed person-centred care plans involving people and their families