Apollo Care Central Manchester

At the time of the assessment, the service was supporting 4 people with their personal care needs. The assessment was planned due to the service not yet being rated.

We have assessed the service against the ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance. This enabled us to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We found people received care and support in accordance with the principles of this guidance.

Apollo Care Central Manchester delivered person‑centred care through strong relationships, clear communication and responsive day‑to‑day practice. Staff recognised changes in people’s wellbeing, adapted routines sensitively and worked closely with families and professionals to maintain stability, particularly for people with complex needs. Staff understood safeguarding responsibilities, felt confident raising concerns and accessed support at any time through open communication channels and out‑of‑hours availability.

The staff team worked effectively because they knew people well, used personalised strategies and shared information promptly. Digital care planning supported consistency, and partnership working with professionals which strengthened outcomes. Staff received emotional support through an open‑door culture, informal check‑ins and access to additional wellbeing resources, which helped maintain a caring and supportive environment. The service responded proportionately to complaints, using shadowing, refresher training, rota adjustments and strengthened expectations to improve practice.

Governance systems required some improvement to ensure good practice in key regulatory areas. Medicines governance required further improvement to ensure missing information on medication records was captured, reviewed and remedied, and to provide assurance that administration was recorded safely and consistently. Recruitment governance also required strengthening; application forms did not always contain full employment histories, and references were sometimes unclear regarding who provided them or in what capacity, creating a compliance gap that required action. A training improvement plan was in place which outlined actions to address overdue training modules and strengthen compliance.

The service demonstrated caring and responsive leadership. Staff felt valued, listened to and supported, and families praised reliability, partnership working and the respectful culture promoted by the registered manager. Monthly communication audits provided a structured method for reviewing documentation and improvements to documentation were fed back to staff.