Canterbury

Updated 11 April 2019

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 was undertaken by one inspector.

Service and service type:

Meridian Community Care (Canterbury) is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to adults who require personal care and or social support.

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 the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

Inspection site visit activity started on 13 March 2019 and ended on 22 March 2019. We visited the office location on 13 and 14 March to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

We reviewed the 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. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection, we reviewed a range of records including:

• Notifications we received from the service

• Completed surveys from people who used the service

• Three people’s care records

• Records of accidents, incidents and complaints

• Audits and quality assurance reports

• We spoke with five people who use the service

• We spoke with the provider, registered manager, client liaison officer, administrator, care co-ordinator and three care staff

• We observed staff spending time with people and interactions with them on the telephone

Updated 11 April 2019

About the service:

Meridian Community Care Canterbury is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to adults living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection the agency was supporting 90 people, only 69 were receiving personal care. CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with personal care, where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People told us they felt safe and supported by staff in the way they preferred. They told us staff were very kind and knew how to keep them safe.

• Potential risks to people’s health and welfare had been assessed and there was guidance for staff to mitigate the risks.

• People had been able to plan their visits with staff and how they wanted their care provided. Care plans were reviewed regularly and people signed to agree their support. Checks and audits were completed to make sure people received a high standard of support, when shortfalls had been found, action had been taken to rectify the shortfall.

• People told us they received their medicines when they needed them, staff liaised with the GP and pharmacy to make sure people had the medicines they needed.

• People’s needs were assessed before they started using the service to make sure staff could meet their needs.

• People told us that they received their calls from regular staff who were on time and their calls had not been missed.

• People were supported by staff who had been recruited safely and received training and supervision to keep people as safe as possible.

• When people needed support to prepare their meals, staff made sure they had a balanced diet, and supported people to access health care professionals when needed.

• People were supported to be as independent as possible and lead a healthy lifestyle. People were supported to make choices and express their views about their care and daily life. Staff supported people to access the community and attend the activities they wanted.

• People told us they received support from the management and office teams when they needed it, they could phone whenever they needed and there was always someone to help.

• People told us they knew how to complain and when they had the concern had been resolved.

• The service worked with other agencies to provide joined up care including district nurses when people were at the end of their lives.

• People, staff and professionals were asked their opinions about the service. The results were analysed and an action plan put in place to address any issues raised.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (report published 21 September 2016).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. We found the service continued to meet the characteristics of Good in all areas. The rating continues to be Good.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service.

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