Bushey House Beaumont DCA

Updated 25 October 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This comprehensive inspection took place on 11 and 12 September 2018 and was announced. We gave the manager 48 hours notice of our inspection. This was so that we could be sure that staff would be available for us to speak with. The inspection was undertaken by one inspector. On 11 September 2018 we spoke with people and their relatives via the telephone, and followed this with a visit to the service on 12 September 2018.

Prior to the inspection we used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed other information we hold about the service such as statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We spoke with representatives from the local authority contract team and the local safeguarding authority. This was to ask about their views of the service provided.

We spoke with two people who used the service and two of their relatives. We spoke with two staff members and the recently employed manager. We looked at care records relating to two people, three staff files, and other records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 25 October 2018

Bushey House Beaumont DCA is a domiciliary care service that is registered to provide personal care to adults when living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection five people were using the service.

At our last inspection we rated the service Good. At this announced inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good. There was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection. However, our rating for the question ‘is the service has well-led’ has deteriorated to Requires Improvement.

There was no registered manager in post at the time of this inspection. 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. A new manager had been appointed but they had yet to apply to the CQC for registration as the manager.

Audit and governance systems were in place but not effectively operated to identify and drive forward any improvements required. Staff had not been consistently supported by an effective management team. People were aware of how to make a complaint or raise a concern, however some of these had not been responded to promptly.

People were supported by staff who knew how to keep people safe from harm. Risk assessments were in place to enable staff to safely support and monitor people’s health and welfare.

Sufficient numbers of staff were deployed to ensure people’s needs were met. Staff had been recruited safely prior to working at the service. People’s medicines were administered as prescribed and managed safely. Systems were in place to maintain infection prevention and control.

Staff were trained to meet people’s care and support needs. People were supported with their eating and drinking to promote their well-being. Staff supported people to access external healthcare services. Staff worked with other organisations to help ensure that people's care was coordinated.

People received a caring service by staff who knew them well. People’s privacy and dignity was maintained by staff. People were involved in their care decisions and staff promoted people’s independence as far as practicable. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible.

Peoples records were well maintained and updated when required. Notifications required to be made about significant events were submitted when required.