Archived: Direct Health - Hessle

Updated 26 July 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 and to look at the overall quality of the service.

This inspection took place on 16 June 2016 and was announced. We gave the registered provider short notice as we wanted to ensure that there were managers present in the service to assist us with the inspection. The inspection was undertaken by one Adult Social Care inspector.

Prior to the inspection we spoke with the commissioning and quality monitoring teams at the local authorities that commission a service from the agency. We did not request a provider information return (PIR) on this occasion as one had previously been requested in preparation for the inspection that commenced in November 2015. The PIR is a form that asks the registered provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

On the day of the inspection we spoke with a care coordinator, the registered manager, the head of homecare and the regional manager. We checked the recruitment and training records for two members of staff and quality monitoring documentation. Following the day of the inspection we spoke with a further two care coordinators to ask for their feedback.

Updated 26 July 2016

This inspection took place on 24 November and 2 December 2015 and was announced. We previously visited the service in June 2013 and we found that the registered provider met the regulations we assessed.

The service is registered to provide personal care and other types of support to people living in their own homes, such as assisting with the administration of medication and the preparation of meals. The agency office is located in Hessle, on the boundary of the East Riding of Yorkshire and the city of Hull. Staff provide a service to people living in Hull, Hessle and other areas of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The registered provider is required to have a registered manager in post and on the day of the inspection there was a manager in post who was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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 told us that they felt safe whilst they were receiving a service from staff working for Direct Health – Hessle. People were protected from the risks of harm or abuse because the registered provider had effective systems in place to manage any safeguarding concerns. Staff were trained in safeguarding adults from abuse and understood their responsibilities in respect of protecting people from the risk of harm. Staff also told us that they would not hesitate to use the agency’s whistle blowing procedure if needed.

Staff confirmed that they received in-depth induction training when they were new in post and told us that they were happy with the training provided for them. The training records evidenced that all staff had completed induction training and that refresher training was completed by staff on a regular basis. The agency database did not allow work to be allocated to care workers if they had not completed essential training.

New staff had been employed following the agency’s recruitment and selection policies and this ensured that only people considered suitable to work with vulnerable people had been employed. We saw that there were sufficient numbers of staff employed to meet people’s individual needs.

People told us that staff were caring and that their privacy and dignity was respected by care workers. People told us that they received the support they required from staff and that their care packages were reviewed and updated as required. They expressed satisfaction with the assistance they received with the administration of medication and meal preparation.

There was a complaints policy and procedure in place and we saw that any complaints made to the agency had been dealt with appropriately. There were systems in place to seek feedback from people who received a service, and feedback had been analysed to identify any improvements that needed to be made.

The quality audits undertaken by the registered provider were designed to identify any areas that needed to improve in respect of people’s care and welfare. Care workers told us that, on occasions, incidents that had occurred had been used as a learning opportunity for staff.

However, some people expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the agency’s office staff. People told us that their concerns were listened to but not always acted on. They said that they were not told if a different care worker would be attending them or if their care worker was going to be late.

We have recommended that the registered provider makes improvements to the service to ensure people receive a consistent service.