Sheena Miles Care Services Ltd

Updated 20 April 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by an 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. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 28 February and ended on 8 March 2023. We visited the location’s office on both these dates. An Expert by Experience made telephone calls to people who used the service and their relatives on 6 March 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During our visits to the office with spoke with 5 staff including the registered manager, deputy manager, care co-ordinator and care assistants. We reviewed records including 4 people's care records and 4 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service including audits and action plans were reviewed

Following our visit to the office we spoke with 4 people who used the service and 7 relatives by telephone. We received feedback about the service from 2 care assistants by e-mail.

Updated 20 April 2023

About the service

Sheena Miles is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 101 people using the service. The service supports people of all ages, including people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities or mental health issues.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support:

Staff helped people to live as independently as possible. 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. Risks were assessed but some documentation to support this was inconsistent. Staff supporting people knew people’s risks and how to manage these safely. There was a culture in place where staff felt comfortable in raising concerns if they had them. People were supported to take medicines safely. The registered manager faced challenges in recruiting appropriately skilled staff that could work flexibly to meet the needs of the service. There were, however, enough staff to ensure people’s needs were met safely. There was on-going recruitment for senior staff with an aim of giving the registered manager more dedicated time to oversee the running of the service.

Right Care:

People using the service were able to express their own views. When things went wrong, actions were put into place and lessons learned were shared with staff to improve the standard of care delivered. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. People’s medicines were managed safely, and staff worked with health professionals where they had concerns about people’s health.

Right Culture:

Staff understood and spoke positively about the importance of person-centred care and helping people to live as independently as they wished. The management team understood their roles and responsibilities and were in the process of improving governance systems. The registered manager was working to an action plan to ensure improvements were embedded consistently. The management team sought feedback from people using the service, their relatives, and staff. The registered manager put a strong focus on staff wellbeing, including breaks and paid travel time. They were receptive to input from staff to develop and improve the service. People told us the service was generally consistent, reliable and they were kept informed of changes.

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 requires improvement (published 16 February 2022).

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out as part of our response to winter pressures in the NHS. We reviewed the evidence we held about the location, which suggested the rating may have improved to at least good and that an improved rating would create additional capacity within the service.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sheena Miles Care Services Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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