CQC rates Leeds care agency outstanding

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Be Caring Leeds as outstanding, following an inspection that took place in June.

Be Caring Leeds, run by Be Caring Ltd is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Personal care includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating.

As well as Be Caring Leeds being rated outstanding overall, it has also been rated outstanding for being caring and well-led. It has been rated good for being safe, effective and responsive. This was the first inspection since the service was registered.

Sheila Grant, CQC deputy director of operations in the north, said:

When we inspected Be Caring Leeds, we were pleased to find people were exceptionally well supported, receiving safe care from kind, passionate staff who went above and beyond to provide a person-centred service which enhanced people's lives.

Leaders had good oversight of what was going on and actively supported staff to deliver exceptional care, spend quality time with people, and use their own initiative to benefit people. For example, staff had organised an afternoon tea event to celebrate arts week for people which they really valued.

Additionally, staff took the time to ask people about what they used to do when they were younger, and used their memories to set up activities to make them feel happy and fulfilled, such as sitting outside in their garden and listening to music they loved.

It was great to hear from people and their relatives that staff were really helpful and did as much as they could to ensure people could live as independently as possible. One relative told us that the whole service works very well, and if they raise any concerns they are sorted immediately.

All of the staff at Be Caring Leeds should be really proud of the service they've created. Other services should look at this report to see if there's anything they can learn to promote improvements across the sector and to support people to lead their best lives.

Inspectors found:

• Staff were passionate about their role in supporting people to live well at home. They also felt valued, and they knew how to raise concerns and access support.
• Care plans and risk assessments set out people's needs in enough detail for staff to provide them safe care.
• Staff made sure people had their medicines on time, and where this was part of their care plan, visits were spaced out to ensure safe administration, such as allowing adequate gaps between doses.
• There were good processes in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and staff received safeguarding training.
• There were processes in place to review accidents and incidents to ensure learning.

The full report will publish on CQC's website in the next few days.