The Care Quality Commission
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Archived: Thera South West

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

The West House, Alpha Court, Swingbridge Road, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 7XT 0300 303 1254

Provided and run by:
Thera Trust

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile

All Inspections

7 December 2016

During a routine inspection

This announced inspection was carried out between 17 November 2016 and 10 January 2017. Thera South West is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care across the south western counties of Devon, Dorset and parts of Wiltshire to people with learning disabilities who are living independently in their own accommodation. Some of these are shared tenancies with other people who also receive personal care and support from Thera South West, and others are single tenancies. Prior to the inspection the provider informed us that they were providing services to 117 people receiving personal care. Staff work in small teams and provide personal care and support to people into a single or small number of properties in these geographical areas.

The service had a registered manager in place at the time of our inspection. 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 were supported by staff who understood the risks people could face and knew how to make people feel safe. People were encouraged to be independent and risks were mitigated in the least restrictive way possible.

Although the majority of people were supported by consistent staff who they knew, there were a small number of people in one geographical area who were not. This had led to some significant concerns for these people. Some people did not always receive the support they should have with taking their medicines and when having creams and ointments applied.

People were provided with the care and support they wanted by staff who were trained and supported to do so. People’s human right to make decisions for themselves was respected and they provided consent to their care when needed. Where people were unable to do so the provider followed the Mental Capacity Act 2005 legal framework to make the least restrictive decisions in people’s best interest.

People were supported by staff who understood their health conditions and ensured they had sufficient to eat and drink to maintain their wellbeing.

People were treated with dignity and respect and their privacy was protected. Where possible people were involved in making decisions about their care and support.

People were able to influence the way their care and support was delivered and they could rely on this being provided as they wished. People were informed on how to express any issues or concerns they had so these could be investigated and acted upon.

The majority of people were supported by a service which was person centred and put their interests first, but some people had received a below standard service because the area their service was in had not been fully resourced. The systems in place to monitor the quality of the service were not being followed so that improvements could be made when needed.

24 February and 4, 6 March 2014

During a routine inspection

We met 10 people who received support from Thera South West. We also met two relatives who were visiting their family member on the day of our inspection. We spoke with eleven members of staff and an operational manager. We also spoke with a social care professional. We looked at eight support records including person centred plans.

The people we met had varying levels of communication skills. A relative helped us communicate with one person. Two people were able to answer our questions without assistance from others. We observed staff communicating effectively with two people who had limited verbal communication skills.

People told us they were very happy with the support they received. Comments included, 'I like all the staff. I like everything about this house. It's safe here.' A relative told us 'She's very happy here. The carers understand her.'

Staff showed us their training records and talked to us about the supervision and support they received.

The provider had internal quality, monitoring and audit systems in place.

25, 26 September 2012

During a routine inspection

We found that people were encouraged to make choices for themselves and were asked about what was important to them and how they would like their identified care needs to be met.

People were involved in planning the way staff supported and cared for them. For example, one person said, 'I choose who I want to take me on holiday then my staff come with me.'

When we asked people about the individual support they received a relative of one person told us that, 'They make sure the care plan shows how the care needs must be met from the person's point of view.'

The people we spoke with also told us they felt confident that the staff had the right skills and experience for the job and that they were suitable, honest and trustworthy.

We found that people felt confident taking any suggestions or concerns to the manager or any of the staff team. A relative of one person told us that, 'When we have reviews we air our views. They (staff) make positive suggestions and think beyond the box.'

We also found that staff had the right amount of training and support to enable them to do their job safely and they were given, and encouraged to give regular feedback to the management team on how well the organisation was doing.