Archived: Westcountry Home Care Liskeard

Updated 29 September 2016

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 inspection took place on 26 July 2016, and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care services and we wanted to make sure staff would be available to speak with us. This inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed the Provider Information Record (PIR) and previous inspection reports. The PIR is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed the information we held about the service and notifications we had received. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

During the inspection we met and spoke with four people who used the service, four relatives, five members of care staff, the deputy manager, and the operations manager. We also inspected a range of records. These included four care plans, three staff files, training records, meeting minutes and a range of policies and procedures.

Updated 29 September 2016

.Westcountry Home Care Liskeard is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to approximately 28 people who live in their own homes in and around Liskeard. This comprehensive inspection took place on 26 July 2016 and was announced in accordance with our current methodology for domiciliary care inspections.

The service had recently changed its name and was in the process of registering a new manager. 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.

People and their relatives told us they were happy with the care and support provided by the service. Comments included; “The staff really are very caring”; “I cannot fault them at all” and “There is nothing they do wrong”.

Staff visit schedules included appropriate amounts of travel time and people confirmed that staff were generally on time and stayed for the time allotted to them. During the inspection we saw no evidence that indicated any planned care visits had been missed and people told us they had not experienced any missed care visits.

People received care which was responsive to their needs. People and their relatives were encouraged to be part of the care planning process and to attend care reviews. This helped to ensure the care being provided met people’s individual needs and preferences.

Risks associated with people’s care were effectively managed to ensure their freedom was promoted. People were supported by adequate numbers of staff who had the skills required to help meet their needs. Recruitment practices were safe and ensured that necessary checks had been undertaken. People’s medicines were managed safely.

People received care from staff who had undertaken training on a range of subjects, to be able to meet their needs. People were supported where required, to make decisions because the registered manager and staff were working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). People’s nutritional needs were met because staff followed people’s care plans to make sure people’s dietary requirements were understood and managed. People were supported to access health care professionals to maintain their health and wellbeing.

The service was well led by a manager who demonstrated the provider’s values. There were quality assurance systems in place to help assess the on-going quality of the service and to help identify any areas which required improvement. The provider and registered manager promoted the ethos of honesty, learned from mistakes and admitted when things had gone wrong.