About the service:

Eclipse Homecare is a domiciliary care service providing support to people in Worcester and the surrounding area. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting approximately 200 people.

The service refers to people it employs to support people as ‘caregivers’ so we have used the term ‘caregivers’ throughout this report.

People’s experience of using this service:

People using the service spoke highly of the care and support they received. People felt they had a regular team of caregivers who knew them well.

People were encouraged to remain as independent as possible and told us that caregivers would encourage them to do the things they could for themselves. People told us they did not feel rushed when they were being supported and felt their caregivers had enough time to spend with them.

Caregivers told us they felt well trained and supported and felt able to raise any concerns or suggestions with management.

The service had recently completed a pilot with the local authority to give people more flexibility in how they were supported and what they wanted support with.

People’s needs and preferences were included in their care planning, reflecting their cultural backgrounds. People told us they felt involved and able to contribute to their support plan and that their choices were respected.

The culture of the service encouraged people to speak up where they felt things could be improved or were not working well. The management of the service responded to complaints positively and used them to try and improve the service.

The management of the service tried different ways of engaging with people to improve the service and reviewed how effective they had been.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (8 February 2016)

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating of the service at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service through information we receive and future inspections.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website www.cqc.org.uk

We spoke with 23 people who used the agency as well as four family members. We also spoke with the registered provider, registered manager, an area team leader, a care co-ordinator and four members of care staff. An expert by experience helped us contact people who used the service by telephone.

We found that people were asked for their consent before they received any care or treatment.

The majority of people we spoke with told us they were happy with the care they received. One person said: “I am more than satisfied with everything, I get excellent help.” Another said: “I’ve got wonderful carers who put everything into the time they are with me. I don’t know what I would do without them.”

People were cared for, or supported by, suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff.

The provider had systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.

People were supported to complain if they were not happy with any aspect of the service.

We inspected the agency office and spoke on the telephone with four people who used the agency and one relative. We also spoke with three members of staff who provided care to people. We found that people were able to express their views and had been involved in making decisions about their care and treatment.

People were complimentary about the care and support that they received. One person told us, “I get on well with the staff. I have no complaints.” Another person said, “I’m happy with them,” and a relative we spoke with told us, “They tick all the boxes. They’re spot on.” This meant that people felt the agency were meeting their individual needs.

We found that people who used the agency were protected from the risk of abuse.

People were cared for, or supported by, suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff.

The provider had systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.

The inspection took place on 17 and 20 November 2015 and was announced.

The service provides personal care to people living either in their own home or the home of a family member. At the time of the inspection, approximately 180 people used the service and a registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Care staff at this service are known as caregivers. People felt safe with the caregivers that supported them within their home. Caregivers understood what is meant to safeguard people, recognised different types of abuse and knew who to report their concerns to.

People were supported by the numbers of caregivers that were required to help them based on their individual care needs. People were happy with staffing levels and caregivers also thought there were sufficient caregivers on duty.

People’s health and risks to their health were understood by caregivers. Caregivers understood what was required to care for people and what action to take if they became concerned about a person’s health.

People were cared for by caregivers that had completed the necessary pre-employment checks to ensure it was safe for them to work at the service.

People were appropriate, were supported by caregivers to take their medicines. People’s medicines were checked regularly to ensure caregivers assisted people in accordance with how medicines were prescribed.

People were helped by caregivers they had confidence in and who they felt understood what was needed to care for them.

Caregivers were regularly supervised so they could feedback issues or concerns they had or request further training. Training that caregivers completed was monitored so that caregiver’s knowledge kept up to date.

Caregivers understood how to obtain people’s consent. The registered manager acted within the requirements of the law and acted within the obligations placed upon them.

People liked and valued the caregivers that supported them. People were familiar with the caregivers, who attended to them regularly and who as a consequence people felt better understood their support needs. People were supported by caregivers that spoke affectionately about the people they cared for and took pride in their role and how they supported people.

People were treated with dignity and respect and caregivers understood how they needed to incorporate this in the way they cared for people.

People received care that was based on their up to date needs and preferences. People were involved in making decisions about their care and also feeding back what they thought about the care they received.

People understood how to complain although did not always complain because any issues they had were resolved by caregivers or by the management team.

People were familiar with the registered manager and understood that they could approach him with any changes in care needs or any other issue relating to the service.

Caregivers enjoyed working at the service and described a supportive environment where caregivers felt valued and listened to by the registered provider and registered manager.

The quality of care people received was regularly monitored to ensure people were happy with their care.