Apollo Care (Wirral) Limited was rated Good across all five key questions at its May 2016 inspection, with people and relatives consistently praising staff as kind, competent and reliable. Two minor recording issues were identified and promptly rectified by management during the inspection.
Concerns (2)
minor
Record keeping
— “Two of the records showed that staff had applied creams that had not been prescribed or in the care plans for administration.”
minorCare planning — “The service did not have a system in place to check that daily log sheets recorded the care that was being delivered was what had been agreed in the care plan.”
Strengths
· People confirmed staff arrived on time and stayed for the full allocated visit duration with no missed visits reported.
· Staff demonstrated strong knowledge of the people they supported and their individual care needs.
· Robust recruitment practices including DBS checks and two written references for all staff.
· Regular staff training covering a wide range of subjects including dementia, skin care and end of life care.
· People and relatives consistently rated the service as very good or excellent, with high satisfaction scores.
Apollo Care (Wirral) is a domiciliary care agency rated Good across all five key questions at its December 2018 inspection, with people receiving safe, effective and compassionate care from well-trained staff. Minor shortfalls were noted in recruitment record-keeping and the depth of person-centred information in care plans, both of which the registered manager was actively addressing.
Concerns (3)
minorRecord keeping — “Records did not always accurately reflect dates people were recruited to ensure all checks were made prior to this date.”
minorPerson-centred care — “We found however, that information regarding people's preferences was limited. We discussed this with the registered manager who told us they were aware of this.”
minorStaff competency — “Staff were observed in practice regularly...This was not specifically referred to within the tool used to record the observations and the registered manager agreed to update the tool used.”
Strengths
· People told us staff were kind and caring and treated them with respect, with thank you cards received praising staff compassion and going above and beyond.
· Sufficient staffing levels with allocated travel time; people reported staff usually arrived on time and stayed for contracted duration.
· Medicines managed safely with staff training, regular observations, and accurate administration records.
· Staff received regular supervisions, annual appraisals, induction, and ongoing training relevant to their roles.
· Robust audit systems in place covering staff files, care plans, medicine records and direct observations, with actions followed up.