Camden Chinese Community Centre

Updated 18 March 2020

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two adult social care inspectors, one pharmacy specialist advisor and one Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience [ExE] 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. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults. 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.

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 a small service and we needed to be sure that staff we needed to speak with would be available.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We reviewed action plans provided to the CQC following our inspection in June 2019. We also reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse, and we sought feedback from the local authority. Prior to our visit we carried out telephone interviews with people who used the service. We received feedback from four people using the service and four relatives. We also asked for a written feedback from staff employed by the service and external health and social care professionals. We received feedback from eight staff and four health and social care professionals.

During the inspection

During our visit, we spoke with the members of the management team including the director who is also the nominated individual, the registered manager and two care coordinators. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We looked at records including eight people's care records, recruitment, training and supervision records for four staff members, and other documents relating to the management of the service.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 18 March 2020

About the service

The Camden Chinese Community Centre [Housebound Project] is a domiciliary care agency. It is an organisation that provides services for members of predominately but not only the Chinese community. The organisation provided a range of socially inclusive services, such as, social welfare, recreational and leisure activities, outreach work for people living in Camden and surrounding boroughs. The organisation's housebound service provided personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Support was provided for older people, people who have mental health difficulties and people with a physical disability. At the time of our inspection, the housebound service provided care to 17 people. Care staff employed by the service spoke Cantonese and other southern Chinese dialects.

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

Since our last inspection the service had continued improving. The management team and the staff worked consistently to ensure the service met requirements of the health and social care regulations. This was reflected in consistently positive feedback from people who used the service, their families, staff and external health and social care professionals. They said the service had undergone a lot of changes which benefited all stakeholders. Further improvements were on the way. These, for example, related to how changes to people’s care were recorded so staff had easy access to current information about people’s needs, how staff recorded care provided to people and recording of audits for further review and reference.

There were systems in place to help to protect people from abuse and harm. Each person had individual risk assessments covering a range of risks relevant to people. These had been reviewed and updated when required. Medicines were managed safely and in accordance with national guidelines. Staff followed effective infection control measures. There were effective safeguarding procedures in place and staff received training so they could recognise signs of abuse. Staff were recruited safely and there were suitable staff deployed to support people.

People’s needs had been assessed to ensure they received the support they needed and wanted. People and when appropriate their family members participated in the care planning and reviewing process. They told us the service had been responsive to people’s changing needs and it was easy to make changes to the care and support provided when needed. People were supported to live a healthier life. Their nutritional needs and preferences were fully considered when providing support with food and drink. Staff supported people to have access to social and healthcare professionals when needed.

Staff were appropriately trained to ensure they had skills and knowledge to provide safe and effective care. Staff skills and competencies had been assessed by members of the management team. Staff had been regularly supported and monitored through regular supervision, yearly appraisal and spot checks in people’s homes.

Staff felt supported by their managers. They thought they could contribute to the development of the service provision and their suggestions and opinion mattered.

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.

All people and relatives were satisfied with the care provided by the service. People and relatives described staff as kind and caring. They told us staff were considerate of people’s needs, sought their permission before providing care and always involved people in decisions about people’s daily care. Staff knew how to protect people’s dignity and privacy.

Staff had wide-ranging knowledge about people, what care they needed and what was important to them. People were usually visited by the same care staff who knew them well. Each person had a person centred care plan which described in detail what people’s care needs and preferences were. Care plans included information about people’s cultural, communication, language and religious needs. Staff were provided with guidance on how people wanted to be supported. Care plans and other documentation related to the service provision were provided in Chinese and English to ensure Chinese and English speakers could understand it.

People and relatives were encouraged to give feedback about the service they received from the Camden Chinese Community Service. This was done through managers being in regular contact with people who used the service and their relatives and yearly service users’ satisfaction surveys. There was an effective complaint procedure in place and people and relatives told us concerns had been promptly responded to people’s satisfaction.

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

Rating at last inspection (and update)

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 24 June 2019). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.