I Care (GB) Limited - Blackburn

The service had a registered manager 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.

This service provides care and support to people living in their own homes. At the time of this inspection, a total of 123 people were using the service. This was provided where people were living independently in the community (49 people) or in an 'extra care' setting (74 people). Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant's own home. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care living; this inspection looked at people's personal care and support service.

We undertook a comprehensive inspection of iCare GB on the 9, 10,11 and 15 January 2018. The overall rating for this inspection was 'Requires Improvement', with well led rated as 'Inadequate'. We found three breaches of the Regulations in relation to personal centred care, staff support and supervision and good governance. We also made recommendations about medicines' administration practices and how information is shared with other service when people are transferred to hospital.

Following the last inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve the key question's, is the service safe, is the service effective and is the service well led? During this inspection we found the necessary improvements had been made and the overall rating has therefore improved to Good.

We saw safeguarding and whistleblowing policies and procedures were in place within the service and the appropriate notifications had been submitted if safeguarding concerns had been raised.

Risk assessments were in place to keep people safe. We saw individual risk assessments were in place in relation to people's health care needs. We also saw risks in people's own environment had been considered.

Staff recruitment procedures protected people who used the service. The service had a recruitment policy in place to guide the registered manager on safe recruitment processes. The service managed staffing levels and the deployment of staff to support people to stay safe and meet their needs.

Medicines were managed safely. The service had improved since our last inspection. Staff had received training in administering medicines and their competencies were checked regularly. We found medicines were stored safely, the medicine administration records were completed without any gaps and controlled

drugs were safely stored.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

All new staff members were expected to complete an induction when they commenced employment. Training courses were available to staff which were relevant to their roles. Staff members told us and records confirmed that staff members received supervisions and appraisals on a regular basis. This was an improvement from our last inspection. All staff members told us they were able to discuss any training requirements they had.

Support plans that were in place were person centred and evidenced the person had been involved in the development and review of these. These were detailed and contained information about people's likes and dislikes.

The service ensured that people were treated with kindness, respect and compassion and that they were given emotional support when needed.

People's privacy and dignity was respected and promoted. Privacy and dignity policies and procedures were in place that staff were expected to read and ensure they understood.

Staff were aware of the importance of maintaining and building people's independence as part of their role and were able to describe to us how they did this.

Staff who were supporting people in the 'extra care' schemes encouraged them to join in activities. Whilst this was not part of their role, the registered manager told us staff wanted to go the 'extra mile' for people they were supporting.

At this inspection we found that improvements had been made to the provider's quality assurance systems. We found these were robust and had been effective at identifying any issues or concerns.

People who used the service, staff and others were consulted on their experiences and shaping future developments. We saw that surveys were sent out to people as a means of gaining feedback about the service.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found