# Absolute Quality Care

*Operated by Absolute Quality Care Ltd.*

Absolute Quality Care is a CQC-regulated home-care agency in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

## CQC Ratings

| Key question | Rating |
| --- | --- |
| Overall | Good |
| Safe | Good |
| Effective | Good |
| Caring | Good |
| Responsive | Good |
| Well-led | Good |

Rating published: 21/05/2019

## Practical info

- Postcode: NE4 9YH
- Registered manager: Charlton, Elaine
- Local authority: Newcastle upon Tyne
- Region: North East
- City: Newcastle Upon Tyne
- Last CQC check: 21/May/2019 - 00:00

## Inspection findings

### Other

- Finding
  - Evidence: People were matched with suitably trained staff and changes to staffing or hours were usually facilitated quickly.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: End of life care was supported with trained staff providing emotional support to people and families.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: Mobile technology was being used to reduce missed or late calls and improve quality monitoring.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: The registered manager was visible, approachable, and trusted by staff, people using the service, and their relatives.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: Care plans were person-centred, written in plain English, reviewed monthly, and incorporated external professional advice promptly.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: Staff were well trained with a common induction process, regular observations, and refresher training tracking.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: Medicines were managed well with trained staff, competency checks, and regular audits by the registered manager.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: People felt safe and staff demonstrated good safeguarding knowledge, including awareness of whistleblowing procedures and types of abuse.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- **supervision_appraisal** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: Records kept of these contacts were minimal and did not show that a comprehensive supervision was taking place.
  - Published: 2020-01-29
- Finding
  - Evidence: Staff produced communication cards for a care home to support a person's transition, demonstrating excellent partnership working.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: Innovative ideas for service development, including pet therapy dog visits.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: Duty of Candour met with open and honest culture promoted by management.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: No missed visits reported; provider maintained continuity of staff where possible.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: Medicines were generally managed well with processes to learn from errors and staff re-trained or competency assessed following incidents.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: People's communication needs were identified, recorded and met in line with the Accessible Information Standard.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: Proactive partnership working with healthcare professionals including district nurses, occupational therapists and social workers.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: Staff responded quickly to health concerns, including making extra visits in their own time.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: Robust recruitment procedures with appropriate checks in place to confirm staff suitability.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- Finding
  - Evidence: People felt safe and staff demonstrated a visible person-centred culture, with people describing staff as kind, compassionate and excellent.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- **care_planning** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: The majority of people's care needs were assessed, planned and renewed. Where some had fallen behind the provider had a plan to address these.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- **consent_capacity** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: Staff confirmed if people had a lasting power of attorney (LPA) in place but did not always have copies of the documentation to support this.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- **record_keeping** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: Storage of care records needed review. Care staff told us they had recently brought older care records from people's homes back to the provider's office.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- **supervision_appraisal** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: Care and support staff meetings had not taken place regularly. During the inspection the provider contacted all staff to try and address this.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- **supervision_appraisal** _(moderate)_
  - Evidence: Formal supervisions had not always taken place in line with provider policy but appraisals were planned.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- **medication_management** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: The medicines policy was missing some guidance and information which the provider told us they would address.
  - Published: 2019-05-21
- **medication_management** _(minor)_
  - Evidence: A small number of medicines records required some improvement as they were not always in place or up to date.
  - Published: 2019-05-21

## Source

Data published by the [Care Quality Commission](https://www.cqc.org.uk/) under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Canonical page: https://homecarecompass.co.uk/agency/1-2484118942

HomeCare Compass is an independent guide and is not affiliated with the CQC.