Colwell Court (Domicillary Care)

Colwell Court (Domiciliary care) provides care and support to people living specialist 'extra care' housing. The service provides support to older people, people living with dementia and people with a physical disability living in their own flats. At the time of our inspection there were 2 people using the service.

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

People were safe from the risk of harm and abuse and were supported by staff who understood safeguarding procedures. There were sufficient and appropriately trained staff in place to support people.

Risks were assessed, monitored and mitigated. Care plans were clear and provided sufficient guidance to staff to keep people safe and outlined people’s preferences. This included information about people’s medicines.

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.

There was a positive culture within the service, people, relatives and staff were complimentary about the management of the service.

The provider had clear quality assurance systems in place and a robust service improvement plan to further drive improvements and develop the service. People were asked to provide regular feedback about their experience using the service which fed into the improvement plan.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 06 October 2017)

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Colwell Court (Domiciliary care) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation about recruitment records.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

The service provides domiciliary care and support to people in their own homes, within an extra care housing scheme. Some of the people supported by the service may be living with dementia, chronic health conditions and physical disabilities. At the time of the inspection, 11 people were being supported by the service.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

Potential risks to people’s health, safety and welfare had been reduced because there were effective risk assessments in place that gave guidance to staff on how to support people safely. There were systems in place to safeguard people from abuse or avoidable harm and staff had been trained in safeguarding procedures. The provider had effective recruitment processes in place and there was sufficient numbers of staff to support people safely. People’s medicines were managed safely.

Staff had regular supervision and they had been trained to meet people’s individual needs. They understood their roles and responsibilities to seek people’s consent prior to care and support being provided. The requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) had been met.

People were supported by caring, friendly and respectful staff. They were supported to make choices about how they lived their lives. Where required, people had been support to have enough to eat and drink to maintain their health and wellbeing. They were also supported to access other health services.

People’s needs had been assessed and they had care plans that took account of their individual needs, preferences, and choices. People and their relatives had been involved in planning and reviewing people’s care plans. Where required, staff supported people to attend a day centre based in the building in order for them to pursue their hobbies and interests or socialise with others.

The provider had an effective system to handle complaints and concerns. They encouraged feedback from people who used the service, their relatives, other professionals and staff, and they acted on the comments received to continually improve the quality of the service.

The service was being well managed and the provider’s quality monitoring processes had been used effectively to drive continuous improvements. The manager provided stable leadership and effective support to the staff. They worked well with staff to promote a caring and inclusive culture within the service. Collaborative working with people's relatives and other professionals resulted in positive care outcomes for people who used the service.

We saw that people's needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with their individual care plans. In general, we found that people were consenting to their care that was provided in accordance with their wishes.

We found the service had a system in place to obtain people's feedback about their care and experiences. We saw the service responded to incidents and investigations by implementing appropriate changes to reduce the risk of recurrence.

We saw the service had a complaints system in place and people were made aware of the process. We found the service had completed the appropriate checks before staff began work and that the care workers employed were appropriately trained and qualified.

During our visit we found peoples' contribution to discussions and decision making about their care to be documented. We saw that people received an assessment of their needs and these were updated in most cases we looked at. We saw that with the considerable use of agency staff, an adequate staff team was available to meet the needs of the people who use the service. Staff were completing a program of mandatory training and were knowledgeable in such things as protecting people from the risk of abuse.

We found that the service had quality monitoring systems in place and people had a variety of methods available for them to share their views and opinions about the service. We noted that where actions to prevent the recurrence of incidents or changes to improve the service were required these were completed.

One person said of Colwell Court: "Anything you ask them to do gets done [and they go] the extra distance to make sure life is easier".