The inspection took place on 17 and 20 November 2015 and was announced.
The service provides personal care to people living either in their own home or the home of a family member. At the time of the inspection, approximately 180 people used the service and a registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
Care staff at this service are known as caregivers. People felt safe with the caregivers that supported them within their home. Caregivers understood what is meant to safeguard people, recognised different types of abuse and knew who to report their concerns to.
People were supported by the numbers of caregivers that were required to help them based on their individual care needs. People were happy with staffing levels and caregivers also thought there were sufficient caregivers on duty.
People’s health and risks to their health were understood by caregivers. Caregivers understood what was required to care for people and what action to take if they became concerned about a person’s health.
People were cared for by caregivers that had completed the necessary pre-employment checks to ensure it was safe for them to work at the service.
People were appropriate, were supported by caregivers to take their medicines. People’s medicines were checked regularly to ensure caregivers assisted people in accordance with how medicines were prescribed.
People were helped by caregivers they had confidence in and who they felt understood what was needed to care for them.
Caregivers were regularly supervised so they could feedback issues or concerns they had or request further training. Training that caregivers completed was monitored so that caregiver’s knowledge kept up to date.
Caregivers understood how to obtain people’s consent. The registered manager acted within the requirements of the law and acted within the obligations placed upon them.
People liked and valued the caregivers that supported them. People were familiar with the caregivers, who attended to them regularly and who as a consequence people felt better understood their support needs. People were supported by caregivers that spoke affectionately about the people they cared for and took pride in their role and how they supported people.
People were treated with dignity and respect and caregivers understood how they needed to incorporate this in the way they cared for people.
People received care that was based on their up to date needs and preferences. People were involved in making decisions about their care and also feeding back what they thought about the care they received.
People understood how to complain although did not always complain because any issues they had were resolved by caregivers or by the management team.
People were familiar with the registered manager and understood that they could approach him with any changes in care needs or any other issue relating to the service.
Caregivers enjoyed working at the service and described a supportive environment where caregivers felt valued and listened to by the registered provider and registered manager.
The quality of care people received was regularly monitored to ensure people were happy with their care.