St George's Park Limited

Updated 31 October 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own properties within the St George’s Park retirement community. It provides a service to older adults including those with physical disabilities.

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. However, the registered manager had recently stepped aside from their role and was in the process of deregistering with the CQC. A new manager was in place and had been so for approximately four weeks, they had worked at the service for a significant amount of time and were in the process of registering with the CQC.

Notice of inspection:

The inspection was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service. We wanted to be sure that someone would be in to speak with us.

What we did before 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 information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as incidents and abuse. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection:

We reviewed a range of records. This included four staff recruitment files, training records, records relating to the management of the service and a variety of policies and procedures and quality assurance processes developed and implemented by the provider. We reviewed four people’s care records. We spoke with five members of staff including, the manager, the care and compliance manager, and care staff. We met with the manager in the office, and observed them working in the office, dealing with issues and speaking with people over the telephone. During our inspection we spoke with five people over the telephone.

Updated 31 October 2019

About the service:

St George’s Park Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes within the St George’s Park retirement community. On the day of the inspection the service was supporting 40 people with a range of health and social care needs, such as people with a physical disability, sensory impairment or people living with dementia. Support was tailored according to people’s assessed needs within the context of people’s individual preferences and lifestyles to help people to live and maintain independent lives and remain in their homes. Not everyone using St George’s Park Limited receives the regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were happy with the care they received, felt relaxed with staff and told us they were treated with kindness. They said they felt safe, were well supported and there were sufficient staff to care for them. One person told us, “They are very good at what they do, we are very fortunate to have this service”.

People’s independence was promoted and told us their needs were met. They told us that they had a regular team of care staff who arrived on time and knew them well. One person told us, “They are very pleasant and kind, I have no concerns about their conduct”.

People felt they were offered choice in the way their care was delivered and that they had no concerns around their dignity and privacy in their own homes being respected. One person told us, “They are always very polite and respectful”.

Staff had received essential training and feedback from people indicated that they knew the best way to care for people in line with their needs and preferences. 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.

The provider had systems of quality assurance to measure and monitor the standard of the service and drive improvement. These systems also supported people to stay safe by assessing and mitigating risks, ensuring that people were cared for in a person-centred way and that the provider learned from any mistakes.

People told us they thought the service was well managed and they received high quality care that met their needs and improved their wellbeing from dedicated and enthusiastic staff. One person told us, “It’s a well-run service, the manager is new in her role, but I’ve known her for a long time”.

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

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 5 January 2017).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the intelligence we receive about this home and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Good.