De Vere Care Partnership -Chelmsford

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• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

We identified a breach of regulation during this assessment. The provider’s governance systems were not effective and did not identify the shortfalls we found during this assessment. This included concerns about their call monitoring system and staff training. The call monitoring identified concerns with people not receiving their commissioned call time and staff logging in at two places at once. Training information provided did not always demonstrate staff had received training specific to their role. Records sent to us about oversight of training were confusing and different training overviews recorded different information. Throughout the onsite assessment, there was a number of documents that were not available for viewing during the inspection. Many of these documents were forwarded to the inspector following the inspection, and for a very large service, this meant we received some information related to call monitoring and staff rotas one by one. When we requested care notes for people on the day of the onsite assessment, they were unable to produce these. However, these were eventually sent following the onsite visit. The provider had referred safeguarding concerns to the relevant local authority safeguard team but had failed to report these safeguarding concerns to CQC.

This service scored 61 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Shared direction and culture during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

Staff told us they felt supported in their role. A staff member told us, “We have meetings, and we talk in the training. Everybody is helpful and people are getting good care; they tell us about any problems so we can improve.” Another staff member said, “They are very supportive. I am currently on sick leave, and I feel supported.” When we spoke with staff, we found staff had gaps in their knowledge about whistleblowing procedures and reporting safeguard concerns externally if this was required. We fed this back to the registered manager following the assessment so staff can receive additional support with any knowledge gaps they have.

We found gaps in staff records related to induction and training, which meant oversight in these areas required improvement. Whilst staff told us they felt supported by the senior team improvement is required about record keeping and oversight.

Staff told us they felt confident to raise any issues with the senior team and were confident they would take appropriate action. A staff member said, “The manager is very friendly and easy to talk to. We talk about mistakes if something goes wrong, we have a meeting to discuss and learn.” As recorded some staff required further support to understand all relevant reporting processes.

The provider and registered manager had not assured all staff had received training to meet individual people’s needs. Whilst staff felt they were listened to more work was required to ensure records to capture staff voices were robust. As part of the assessment, we requested surveys completed for staff, but these had not been received. Most people and relatives were positive about communication with the office. A person told us, “ I know the manager as they came to review the care plan recently and have a good rapport and find the company easy to talk to. I find it easy to get hold of the office staff they answer the phone promptly. I would describe De Vere as providing a good service.” Another person said, “I can contact the office if I need anything they are easy to contact. I have never complained, if I was unhappy with anything I would feel confident in raising any concerns.” However, a relative said, “I’ve stopped phoning them because they don’t listen, but I haven’t had to phone them for a while because of the carers…Every time I’ve phoned them up, they’ve been in a meeting.”

We did not look at Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The staff we spoke with were positive about working at the service and told us they thought the service was well-led. A staff member said, “They [the organisation] do the maximum to support us and the clients, they are here for. I would be happy for a relative to use this service.” Another staff member said, “They manage excellently, everything is good. We can contact the manager at any time. They listen to us and act. The checks are good, we have spot checks.” Whilst the provider had managed to create a positive culture for staff we found staff required additional support in some areas which had not been identified.

Systems in place to monitor the quality of care people received were not robust and had not identified areas of potential risks which were found during this assessment. The provider's oversight of call monitoring and staff training was not robust, and we were not assured they had effective oversight in these two areas.

We did not look at Partnerships and communities during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

We did not look at Learning, improvement and innovation during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.