Gladstone Care Limited

Updated 2 April 2019

The inspection: We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type: This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults who may have a physical or sensory impairment, mental health needs, dementia related condition and learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder.

The service had a manager who had been registered with the Care Quality Commission since 1 October 2010. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection: We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available to speak with us.

Inspection site visit activity started on 23 January 2019 and ended on 24 January 2019. We visited the office location on both dates to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did: Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

Due to technical problems, the provider was not able to complete a Provider Information Return. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

Before the inspection we requested feedback about the service from the local authority. We reviewed information we held about the service which included notifications the provider is required to send to us which tell us about important events that happen whilst people are receiving services and how these are managed.

During the inspection we reviewed four people’s care plans and any associated documentation and four staff recruitment files and training certificates. We looked at information relating to the management of the service which included; Satisfaction surveys completed by people and their relatives, records of accidents, incidents and complaints and the audits and quality assurance information

After the inspection, we contacted four health professionals, four relatives, five people receiving a service and three staff to gain their feedback about the service.

Updated 2 April 2019

About the service: Gladstone Care Limited – 54 Gladstone Street is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults who may need support with their mental health, dementia related conditions, learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder and physical disability or sensory impairment.

Not everyone using Gladstone Care Limited - 54 Gladstone Street receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; 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 this inspection the provider was supporting 130 people with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service: Quality monitoring was completed regularly. The provider had systems in place to report safeguarding concerns to ensure people’s safety. However, records were not in place to provide an overview of all safeguarding incidents and the actions taken. The provider immediately took measures to develop this system during the inspection.

Risk assessments were completed regularly and provided guidance for staff on how to mitigate any risks to people. Risks associated to people’s health conditions would benefit from further detail to guide staff in how best to support them. The provider took measures during the inspection to include specific care plans around people’s health conditions and ensure detailed risk assessments were in place to support staff.

Staff could tell us about people’s likes, dislikes and preferences. Care plans and risk assessments were being developed to encourage a more person-centre approach.

Staff completed the Care Certificate as part of their induction and completed annual refresher training to maintain their knowledge and skills. The Care Certificate is a national set of standards that all those working in health and social care should adhere to. Additional courses were offered, some delivered by the local hospice and district nurses. Staff were knowledgeable about people’s needs and how best to support them.

Robust recruitment processes were followed to ensure prospective staff were suitable to work in a care environment. Since our last inspection the service had restructured and additional senior staff were in place to support existing staff in the community.

People told us they felt staff cared about them and gave examples of how staff treated them with dignity and respect, whilst encouraging as much independence at possible.

The majority of staff we spoke with told us that they used various methods of communication and felt that overall information was provide to them in a timely manner.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated Good (Last report published 9 August 2016).

Enforcement: We found the provider to be in breach of Regulation 18, Notification of other incidents, of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009.

Follow up: The provider had failed to notify the Care Quality Commission of safeguarding concerns. This will be monitored to ensure future notifications are made appropriately.

For more details, please see the full report which is on CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk