Apollo Care (North) Liverpool

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to older adults living in their own homes in the community. Not everyone using Apollo Care North Liverpool receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; which is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection Apollo Care North Liverpool was providing personal care to 14 people.

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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was in the process of handing over the running of the service to a local manager who told us they were planning to register with the Care Quality Commission. At the time of our inspection the registered manager had oversight of the service.

People we spoke with were very complimentary and positive in their feedback about the care they received. One person told us their care staff were "smashing". Another person told us, "The carers have been very good". A third person told us, "I only have to mention something and it's done." One person's family member told us, "I'd fully recommend them." One person had written in feedback, 'I cannot find fault with any of my carers, they do an excellent job. Anything I ask them they do, they never refuse!'

We spoke with staff who were very passionate about their role. One staff member told us, "I love my job. I love getting up in the morning; I love the people I care for." Another staff member told us, "I've enjoyed building up relationships with people."

People told us that they received reliable care from familiar care staff who were known to them. We saw that there were enough staff members to provide people's care safely along with an on-call system in place to cover emergencies. This helped to keep people safe.

We saw that people had individualised, detailed care plans that reflected people's needs and preferences. People's choice was promoted and consent was sought before care was provided, this included people consenting to and signing their care plan. The service was provided in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

We also saw that there were appropriate risk assessments providing guidance for staff on how to mitigate risks. Any accidents and incidents were recorded and responded to and reviewed by a senior member of staff for future learning and prevention. There were procedures in place to ensure that people received their medication safely.

People and their families feedback was sought during spot checks and from feedback forms. One family member had written in a recent feedback form, 'Just wanted to let you know how delightful we are with the care my mother received from your company.'

New staff had been recruited safely which helped ensure they were suitable to care for vulnerable adults. They took part in a five day induction program and shadowed a more experienced member of staff until they were confident and had been introduced to people.

Staff received appropriate training to be effective in their role; this included training in safeguarding vulnerable adults. Staff were knowledgeable about safeguarding and were confident in telling us what they would do if they suspected a person was at risk of abuse.

Staff were supported with ongoing training and refresher training, staff meetings, supervision meetings and appraisals. There were unannounced spot checks of staff practice which provided them with feedback on their work.

The local manager was known to people and it was clear that they had a positive relationship with people. People told us that they had confidence in the local manager and the service their staff provide. The registered manager and local manager had arranged for a series of checks and audits to ensure that they had oversight of the quality of the service provided to people. We saw a culture of caring and continuous improvement at the service.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found