We are delighted that following our Oak Trees learning difficulty services inspection by The Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 6 April 2017, we have now received their full inspection report. This is the first time we have been inspected under the new inspection regime and the first ever inspection for Empanda.
The actual inspection process started some months ago when we were asked to submit Provider Information Returns, known as PIRs. We were also asked for the contact details of social care, health and other professionals with whom we work, as well as contact details for customers and their family members and email addresses for the staff team. Contact was then made by the CQC Inspector, with many or all of the people we listed so that she could gain a lot of background information and feedback before she actually came out to meet with us. It also gave her the opportunity to ask any questions arising from the feedback when she came out to inspect the services in April.
The inspection day started just before 10am and concluded just after 7pm. Throughout the day the inspector met and talked with many of the team, our respite care guests and some of our supported living service users too.
Having now received the final report, we are really pleased with our score which is an overall ‘Good’ and a score of ‘Good’ for each of the 5 areas on which we were inspected:
Is the service safe?
Is the service effective?
Is the service caring?
Is the service responsive?
Is the service well-led?
With the scoring options being ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires Improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’, to achieve ‘Good’ across the board is an excellent result and given we are viewed as a new provider, we don’t think we could have hoped for any more in our first inspection.
We confess to being just a little disappointed that we didn’t score ‘Outstanding’ in a couple of the areas, especially when the feedback the inspector received was so positive and we know how hard the team have worked to get the service to where it is today. However, despite the fact we have worked together as a team for many years and Kerrie Good has been the Registered Manager at Oak Trees for a very long time, we are viewed by the CQC as a brand new care provider and therefore we don’t believe they would have awarded us the highest score on our very first inspection.
The fact we achieved this positive outcome shows just what a great job the Oak Trees team is doing and how much the services are valued by our customers, partners, referring agencies, families and commissioners. All our customers spoke very highly of the service they received and that’s what really matters.
Having set the bar high in our first inspection, we need to start planning and working towards achieving the elusive ‘Outstanding’ next time the CQC inspect!
Well done to the Oak Trees team and thank you for all you do to make the services we provide special.
