Background to this inspection
Updated
29 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, 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 28 June 2016 and was announced. The provider was given 24 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.
The inspection team consisted of two inspectors 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.
Before the inspection we reviewed the information we already held about this service. This included details of its registration, previous inspection reports, notifications the provider had sent us and safeguarding incidents. We contacted the local authority with responsibility for commissioning care from the service to seek their views.
During the inspection we spoke with four people that used the service and six relatives. We spoke with eight staff, this included the registered manager, the office manager, a care coordinator and five care assistants. We reviewed ten sets of records relating to people that used the service including care plans and risk assessments. We looked at six staff files which included details of their recruitment, training and supervision and we looked at the training matrix for all staff working at the service. We reviewed medicine records and minutes of various meetings. We examined quality assurance and monitoring systems at the service. We looked at various policies and procedures including the complaints, safeguarding adults and whistleblowing policies.
Updated
29 July 2016
At the last inspection of this service in September 2015 we found three breaches of legal requirements. This was because staff did not always attend to appointments to provide care to people, staff that worked with people living with dementia had not undertaken any training about dementia care and the provider did not have robust quality assurance and monitoring systems in place. During this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was now meeting legal requirements.
The service was registered to provide support with personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 136 people were using the service. The service had a registered manager in place. 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.
The service had appropriate safeguarding procedures in place and staff were knowledgeable about their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding adults. Risk assessments were in place which included information about how to mitigate any risks people faced. There were enough staff working at the service to enable the service to meet people’s assessed needs and not miss appointments. Pre-employment checks were carried out on prospective staff. Medicines were administered in a safe manner.
Staff undertook an induction training programme on commencing work at the service and received on-going training after that. People were able to make choices for themselves where they had the capacity to do so and the service operated within the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Where people were supported with food preparation they were able to choose what they ate and drank. The service worked with other agencies to promote people’s health and wellbeing.
People told us they were treated with respect and that staff were caring. Staff had a good understanding of how to promote people’s privacy, independence and dignity.
Care plans were in place for people which set out their needs and the support they required in a personalised manner about the individual person. The service had a complaints procedure in place and people told us they knew how to make a complaint if needed.
People and staff spoke positively of the management at the service and of the working atmosphere. Various quality assurance and monitoring systems were in place, some of which included seeking the views of people that used the service.