It’s an exciting time over at SureCare Shropshire this summer. Ahead of the franchise celebrating 20 years in business next month, their recent CQC inspection has resulted in them receiving the highest possible rating – ‘Outstanding’!

The Care Quality Commission regularly monitors and routinely inspects all manner of health and social care services throughout England, and this includes all SureCare operations in areas across the country. These inspections ensure that our care teams provide effective services every time in a way that is safe but also personal and friendly.

According to the CQC report “The State of Care in England 2018”, some 79% of UK regulated care services achieve a ‘Good’ rating, a further 17% fall below that into the ‘Requires Improvement’ category and around 1% are rated ‘Inadequate’. categories. Only 3% of regulated care services in the UK reach the top accolade of ‘Outstanding’, which makes it all the more exciting for the Shropshire team to have received this result.

What the recent inspection means…

During an inspection, CQC inspectors will typically assess five key areas of operation. These are:

• Safety of services
• Effectiveness of services
• Level of compassionate care given
• How responsive the services are
• Effectiveness of team leadership

In three of these five areas, SureCare Shropshire achieved an ‘Outstanding’ rating, leading to the overall ‘Outstanding’ award for the service. This built on the successes of their previous CQC inspections which produced ‘Good’ CQC ratings across the board. The previous UK regulator, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) had previously over many years awarded Shropshire their top ‘Excellent’ award in the days when (it had to be said) the rating was much easier to achieve.

Inspectors also contacted a number of service users (and their families) who had been contacted in advance, in order for them to get an idea of how various care services are received and to obtain customer feedback. They found that SureCare Shropshire is a people-centred service and that the help and support it gives is respectful, considerate and extremely thorough. In addition the Inspector directly interviewed many office and care staff and contacted local authority commissioners and other healthcare professionals to see what they all thought of the service.

Franchisee Chris Davies and his Registered Manager Deb Blake look after daily operations at SureCare Shropshire, while their vast team of care workers, co-ordinators and office staff keep the wheels turning every day without fail. This exceptional result is a true testament to the dedication and hard work of everyone involved.

Chris Davies said: “Our CQC inspection came at a time when the pressures on adult social care have never been higher, so to achieve a result such as this is truly remarkable and proper recognition of the efforts we put in constantly to deliver an exceptional service. Following the Inspector’s email giving us the good news last month, she and I talked over the phone. It turns out that in all her work inspecting care services over many years working for the CQC she had only been able to award three care services the rating of ‘Outstanding’ and we were one of those three.

“I know how difficult it is for an Inspector to justify making this award, the many steps they have to go through in order to convince people at very senior levels in the CQC that the award is justified and we are eternally grateful that she made those efforts on our behalf. It’s a matter of great pride to me that all our hard work has paid off.”

SureCare Shropshire is one of the longest standing branches in the SureCare community, celebrating a milestone 20 years in operation this September.