St Jude's Care Ltd

St Jude’s is a domiciliary care service registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. The service provided domiciliary care and 24-hour live-in care. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 84 people with the regulated activity personal care. The service provides care and support to people with a variety of needs including dementia, mental health, physical disability and learning disabilities. The service also provides nursing support and respite care.

Care Quality Commission (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

People described the service as well-led. 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. The culture of the service was caring and focused on ensuring people received person-centred care that met their needs in a timely way. It was evident staff knew people well and put these values into practice.

People who used the service, and their relatives, described a service they could rely on. They confirmed visits were not missed and staff arrived when expected. People had a rota telling them which staff to expect and at what time. They said the service was safe and there were sufficient staff employed to ensure all planned visits were undertaken. People were supported by staff who had been safely recruited, and had their competency assessed to help ensure they were sufficiently skilled and knowledgeable to support people safely.

The service had an effective out of hours system in place over 24hours. A contingency plan was in place to ensure the service kept running through adverse weather conditions or during staff sickness.

People received care and support that was extremely personalised to meet their individual needs. People and their relatives were at the centre of planning their care and support. The management team carefully matched people’s needs, preferences and interests to care staff to ensure the best possible care and support was delivered. This meant that staff had created caring and meaningful relationships with people, which resulted in positive outcomes for them.

The service understood the importance of supporting people to make day to day decisions and choices. Assessments of their care and support were detailed. Information was regularly reviewed which ensured it remained up-to-date ensuring people's diverse needs were met. Comprehensive assessments were completed, which considered all aspects of people’s health and care needs. Information about who and what was important to the person was also discussed and incorporated into care plans.

People were enabled to make choices about aspects of their care where they had capacity to make decisions. They were given opportunities to plan and choose how they spent their day, and how they wished to be supported.

The service supported some people living with a learning disability. Care and support provided had been in line with the values that underpinned Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion.

People were safe and protected from avoidable harm. Staff knew how to identify and report any concerns relating to the risk of abuse. Risks to people’s health, safety and well-being were assessed, and measures were in place to reduce the risks.

People’s medicines were managed safely, and staff had received training in medicines administration and had their competency assessed to ensure the safe administration of medicines.

A complaints policy was in place. When complaints were received these were recorded, and evidence time scales and action taken by the service to resolve the complaint. People told us they were aware of how to make a complaint and felt confidence their complaint would be resolved quickly.

People said the service was very well managed. There were effective systems in place to monitor the safety and quality of the service. Regular feedback about the quality of the service people received had been sought. The management team continually looked for ways to improve the service.

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

The last rating for this service was Good (published 08 May 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Jude’s on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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

The service had a registered manager. 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.

Staff were aware of their responsibilities in protecting people from harm and knew how to report any concerns about people's safety or wellbeing. People had individual risk assessments giving staff the guidance and information they needed to support people safely.

People were supported by staff who were recruited safely and were familiar to them. People and relatives felt that staff had the sufficient skills and knowledge to support them and we saw that staff had access to relevant training for their role. Staff received regular supervision and appraisals and we saw that they also had competency checks to ensure that they had the necessary skills.

Staff understood what support people needed to manage their medicines safely and these were given as prescribed. There were processes in place to audit the accuracy of recording medicines.

Staff understood how to support people to make choices about the care they received, and encouraged people to make decisions about their care. Assessments reflected that the service was working within the framework of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Where people received support from staff to eat and drink sufficiently, we saw that staff offered choices and prepared foods in the way people liked.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring in their approach. Staff understood people’s likes and preferences and promoted independence. People told us that staff were respectful of their homes and treated them with dignity.

People had individualised care plans which were person centred and focussed on what goals people wanted to achieve. People received support to access health services when required.

People told us that they received a rota each week letting them know what staff were due to visit at what times. Where changes were needed to visits, or where staff were running late, people told us that the office made contact to let them know. People and relatives told us that they would be confident to complain if they needed to.

People, relatives and staff spoke positively about the management of the service. We were told that the office were easy to contact and friendly and that the manager was approachable.

Staff were encouraged to raise issues and discuss queries and felt valued in their role. There were regular staff meetings where practice and ideas were discussed. .

Quality assurance measures were regular and the information was used to monitor and drive high quality care.