Voyage (DCA) Berkshire

Updated 22 November 2022

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency and supported living service. The service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and provides care to people living in ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 31 October 2022 and ended on 4 November 2022. We visited the location’s office on 31 October 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We looked at all the information we held about the service including notifications. A notification is information about events that the registered persons are required, by law, to tell us about. We sought feedback from the local authority. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke to eight members of staff including the registered manager, operations manager, field support workers and care staff. We spoke to 11 people who use the service and four relatives.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and samples of people’s medicine records. We looked at four staff recruitment files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including complaints, accidents and samples of audits were also viewed.

Updated 22 November 2022

About the service

Voyage (DCA) Berkshire is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people in their own homes and supported living settings. The service provides support to older people, young adults, autistic people, people with dementia, sensory impairments, learning disability or physical disabilities. At the time of inspection, the service was providing personal care to 29 people. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care and right culture.

Right Support

People’s care was person centred and promoted people’s human rights. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Recruitment procedures, staff supervision and training ensured suitably qualified staff were deployed to make sure people were always safe and received care that met their needs. The provider used incidents and accidents to identify themes and trends and take preventative actions in order to mitigate the risk of reoccurrence to people. Risk assessments were reviewed and updated regularly and were individualised in order to meet the needs of the person.

There was clear evidence of partnership working with other professionals such as the local authority as well as people’s relatives and significant others in order to develop and individualise people’s care plans. Staff were able to describe how to communicate with people and care plans supported staff with ensuring effective communication.

Right Care

People experienced good continuity of care from staff they knew well. Staff engaged well with other agencies to ensure people had access to the support they needed for their healthcare and wellbeing needs. The service made referrals and liaised with other healthcare professionals when required. Staff treated people with dignity and respect.

Right Culture

Quality assurance processes had identified emerging risks to people and ensured they were managed safely. The provider understood their responsibilities to inform people, or their representatives, when things went wrong. The provider had conducted investigations to identify lessons to prevent further occurrences. Staff supported people and their families to express their views and be actively involved in making decisions about their care, support and treatment as far as possible

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

Rating at last inspection

This was the first inspection of the service at their newly registered address. The last rating for the service at the previous premises was good (published on 31 August 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Voyage (DCA) Berkshire on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.