Affinity Trust - Domicilary Care Agency - West Midlands

Updated 3 October 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. 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

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience 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 that provides supported living. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Some people also share additional communal areas.

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. The service has recruited a second manager who is going to share the registered manager’s responsibilities and is currently in the process of applying for registration with us.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. We also wanted time to arrange for us to meet people who used the service and obtain contact details of people and relatives.

Inspection activity started on 9 September 2019 and ended on 11 September 2019. We visited the office location on 10 September 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information we held about the service to plan the inspection. This included checking for any statutory notifications that the provider had sent to us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We used this information to plan our inspection. We also used information the provider sent to us in the Provider Information Return (PIR) to formulate our inspection plan. A PIR is key information we require from providers on an annual basis giving us key information about the service. We asked the local authority and Healthwatch for any information they had which would aid our inspection. Local authorities together with other agencies may have responsibility for funding people who used the service and monitoring its quality. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

As part of the inspection we spoke with 10 relatives/ representatives of people who used the service to establish their views and feedback about the service provided. We also received written feedback from another. We contacted relatives because a number of people would not have been able to express their views with us.

During the inspection

During the inspection we visited four people in their homes (with their prior agreement), three of whom received the regulated activity. We also spoke with one person over the telephone. We spoke with a staff member, a support manager, a divisional director and the operations manager (who is to become one of the two registered managers). We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records. We also looked at quality assurance records, as well as one recruitment file and staff training records.

Following the inspection we spoke with a further three staff and received written feedback from a social care professional who had recently worked with the registered manager and the team.

Updated 3 October 2019

About the service

Affinity Trust - West Midlands provides personal care and support to people with learning and physical disabilities who live independently in the community. 98 people used the service at the time of our inspection, 53 of these received personal care. People either lived on their own or with other people.

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

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

Overall people received safe and effective care and support. Recent medication errors were being proactively managed to reduce risks. Risks were assessed and managed to enable people to live independent lives. Staff were vigilant to identify risks and take action to ensure people remained safe.

People received support from a consistent staff team who they had helped to recruit. Staff received training relevant to their role and overall had good support from senior managers and colleagues.

People’s needs were assessed and documented to ensure their care needs were met. Care plans were detailed and effective to ensure staff always had access to the most current information. Plans were reviewed regularly as people’s needs changed.

People received appropriate support to eat, drink and prepare meals. People were supported to access healthcare, and other agencies, when required. Staff worked in partnership with health and social care professionals to ensure consistency and ensure people received appropriate and safe support.

Staff were caring and respectful, promoting people’s privacy, dignity and independence.

Staff sought people’s consent before supporting them and decisions about people’s care and treatment were made in line with law and guidance

People’s care was responsive to their changing needs. People, and their relatives, were involved in the assessment and planning of their care this joint working meant people’s needs were met fully. People knew how to raise a concern and always felt listened to. Information was available in different formats to make it accessible.

People felt the service was well managed. People, and staff, had regular opportunities to share their views about the service. Overall staff felt well supported and usually listened to when they shared feedback. The provider carried out audits to ensure the quality of care provided and created an ethos of learning from mistakes and constantly improving

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

Why we inspected:

This was a scheduled inspection based on the previous rating.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published July 2016).

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.