Voyage (DCA) Essex

Updated 17 September 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: This inspection was carried out by one inspector, an assistant 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

Voyage Care DCA Essex is a domiciliary care agency which also operates five housing schemes and a day centre. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 40 people and employed 104 members of staff.

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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did when preparing for and carrying out this inspection:

Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about and we sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During our inspection visit, we spoke with five people using the service and four relatives to ask about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke to eight members of care staff, office personnel the operations manager and the registered manager.

We visited the office where we spoke with the registered manager, operations director, office staff and reviewed a range of records. These included six people’s care and medication records. We also looked at nine staff files including supervision records, records relating to the management of the service and a variety of policies and procedures developed and implemented by the provider. We looked at records relating to recruitment, training and systems for monitoring quality. After the first day of the inspection we spoke with further staff and relatives by telephone to seek clarification and validate the evidence we found.

Updated 17 September 2019

About the service:

Voyage Care Essex is a domiciliary care agency which also operates five housing schemes and a day centre. It provides personal care and support to adults and older people living within their own homes. Not everyone using the service may receive the regulated activity; personal care. 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. At the time of our inspection there were 40 people using the service.

People's experience of using this service

People were kept safe. Staff knew their responsibilities in relation to the subject of abuse and how to report any concerns. The provider's policies and procedures about abuse supported them in their roles. Risks to people's health and welfare had been assessed and regular reviews were undertaken to keep people safe. People were protected from identified risks and plans were in place to manage risks safely in the least restrictive way.

People and their relatives spoke very positively about the care and support they received. Staff communicated and interacted well with people and had built good relationships with them.

There were arrangements in place to manage medicines safely and staff followed appropriate infection control practices to prevent the spread of infections. Appropriate recruitment checks took place before staff started work.

Sufficient staff were available to meet people's needs. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to support people appropriately. Staff were supported through induction, training and supervision processes.

People were supported to maintain a healthy balanced diet where this was part of the planned care. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice.

People and their relatives were involved and consulted about their care and support needs. People had access to health and social care professionals as required. People were supported to access community services and to participate in activities of their choosing that met their needs.

Staff worked with people to promote their rights and understood the Equality Act 2010; supporting people appropriately addressing any protected characteristics which are specific aspects of a person’s identity defined by the Equality Act 2010 which protect people from discrimination.

There were systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality of the service. The service worked in partnership with health and social care professionals and other organisations to ensure appropriate support was provided to individuals.

There was a culture of openness and honesty between the registered manager, staff team and people using the service. Information was available to people, so they knew how to make a complaint and felt confident these would be listened to with action taken to resolve any issues they had.

There was a strong emphasis on continuous improvement and seeking the views of people who used the service and healthcare professionals to measure the outcomes for people and identify where any changes in practice or improvements were needed.

Rating at last inspection: The last rating for this service was Good (Report published 1st February 2017)

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

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

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