Background to this inspection
Updated
19 June 2019
Background to this inspection
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: The inspection team consisted of one inspector, one assistant inspector 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: Essex Cares South East provides short term care at home for people recovering from illness and injury.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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 it is small, and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
An expert by experience carried out telephone calls to people receiving and who had recently received the service. This took place on the 1 May 2019 and ended on the 2 May 2019. The inspection site visit activity took place on 2 May 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did: Before the inspection we reviewed the provider information return, statement of purpose and current information about the service that all registered providers are required to send to us.
During inspection: We spoke with 20 people who were using or had recently used the service; two relatives, the registered manager, the quality and governance manager; a care coordinator and two members of care staff, an office planner, Occupational Therapist and an Occupational Therapy assistant.
We looked at various information held at the service, including quality audits, staff training, two of the most recent staff employment files, compliments and complaints and a variety of other tools used to monitor the quality of the service.
Updated
19 June 2019
About the service: Essex Care South East provides a reablement service for up to six weeks for people who are discharged from hospital. The focus of their support is to rehabilitate people back to independence or if needed support transition to ongoing care services.
People’s experience of using this service:
People received a service that was safe. Systems and processes were continuously reviewed to ensure risks to people’s safety were mitigated and staff had the information they needed to provide safe care to support people to achieve their goals.
The care provided by the service was very effective. Staff were exceptionally well trained and supported by wider health and social care professionals. The provider was committed to upskill care staff to support people to achieve their best outcomes.
Staff had an excellent understanding of mental capacity and how to support people to make informed choices about their care. Should people lack capacity this was quickly identified, and measures put in place to support those people in line with their preferences and goals.
Staff were very caring. People we spoke with commented on how supportive and caring the service was at all levels of the organisation.
Care plans were responsive and constantly adapted to ensure people received person centred care tailored to their own unique goals and progress. When people required additional ongoing care, the service remained with them until the ongoing care could be found.
Care staff were proud to work for the organisation and were led by a strong registered manager and management team.
The registered manager and management team were committed to building a strong workforce with high morale based on shared visions and values that put people at the heart of service provision. They recognised staff were central to this goal and offered exceptionally high support. It was clear from talking with staff, people receiving a service, their relatives and external health and social care professionals that staff at all levels of the organisation shared the same visions and values.
Exceptionally robust quality and governance controls meant that the risks to the service were identified and mitigated quickly and that when errors did occur lessons were learnt and shared to prevent reoccurrence.
Rating at last inspection: The service achieved a rating of Good in all domains and an overall rating of Good. This report was published on the 14 April 2016.
Why we inspected: This was a scheduled/planned inspection based on previous rating.
Follow up: We will continue to monitor this service in line with our guidance.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk