Archived: Future Home Care Ltd Kent

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them

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

People’s experience of using this service:

The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support in the following ways, the promotion of choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new skills and become more independent. People were engaging in the local community, for example using their local community to utilise ordinary community resources, shops, access leisure activities and to access day services and recreational activities to ensure they had a good day.

Staff were responsive and committed to ensuring people received high quality care that met their needs. Staff promoted people’s self-worth and well-being; enabling people to achieve their goals and aspirations.

People were at the centre of their care and support, taking the lead regardless of their level of care and support needs. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were involved in the recruitment of their staff team; through staff matching tools and observations of interactions between people and potential staff. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and staff were recruited safely. People’s knowledge about keeping safe was promoted and staff understood the action to take if they had any suspicions of abuse.

The service provided effective and safe support to people living with a learning disability and or autism. People were provided with good support to communicate, staff knew people well and understood their communication needs. Innovative ways were used to enable people to communicate their wishes such as, the use of sensory items. People were supported to feedback on their experiences and contribute to planning their own support in ways which were suitable for their communication needs. For example, through using pictures, stories and gestures.

People were supported to manage their emotions and had positive behaviour support strategies in place. People were supported to maintain relationships with people that mattered. Staff supported people to understand how to keep safe when in a relationship.

People were involved in food shopping, planning their menu and where possible the preparation of food and cooking. People were encouraged and supported to be as independent as possible. People were supported to access routine and specialist healthcare appointments when they needed to.

The senior managers promoted an open culture and was a visible presence in the services, staff felt supported by the senior managers and their line managers, they felt listened to and valued. Staff were well trained and received consistent support and guidance. Staff worked in collaboration with health care professionals to promote people’s health, nutrition and hydration.

People, staff and relatives’ feedback was actively sought and acted on. There was a commitment to the continuous development of each service. Staff were proud to work for the organisation and strived to enhance people’s lives and outcomes.

The service met the characteristics of Good. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

The service was rated Good at the last inspection on 28 July and 3 August 2016 (the report was published on 13 October 2016).

Why we inspected:

This inspection was a scheduled inspection based on previous rating.

Follow up:

We will visit the service again in the future to check if there are changes to the quality of the service.

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

Future Home Care provides care services to 58 people in their own homes mainly in Kent and was managed from an office in West Malling. The care provided was tailored to people’s needs so that people could maintain or develop their independent living skills. Care was delivered to adults with learning disabilities, mental illness and physical disabilities. People needed help with day-to-day tasks like cooking, shopping, washing and dressing and help to maintain their health and wellbeing. There were 38 people receiving the regulated activity of personal care at the time of our inspection. The care and support people needed ranged from two hours a week to more intensive 24-hour support packages.

There was a registered manager employed at the service. 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 registered manager was also the provider.

People spoke about the staff in a positive light regarding their feelings of being safe and well cared for. They thought that staff were caring and compassionate. Staff were trusted and well thought of by the people using the service.

The registered manager assessed people’s needs and planned people’s care to maintain their safety, health and wellbeing. The provider had a clear understanding of the needs they could meet to enable them to deliver a good level of care. Risks were assessed by staff to protect people. There were systems in place to monitor incidents and accidents.

Staff had received training about protecting people from abuse and showed a good understanding of what their responsibilities were in preventing abuse. Procedures for reporting any concerns were in place. The registered manager knew how and when they should escalate concerns following the local authorities safeguarding protocols. People were given information about how to report abuse.

Staff training covered both core training like first aid and more specialised training in learning disabilities, mental health and autism. We could see that the management and staff culture was grounded in recognised good practice in learning disability and mental health care.

The registered manager and staff had received training about the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and understood when and how to support people’s best interest if they lacked capacity to make certain decisions about their care.

Working in community settings staff often had to work on their own, but they were provided with good support and an ‘Outside Office Hours’ number to call during evenings and at weekends if they had concerns about people. The service could continue to run in the event of emergencies arising so that people’s care would continue. For example, when there was heavy snow or if there was a power failure at the main office.

Staff were recruited safely and had been through a selection process that ensured they were fit to work with people who needed safeguarding. Recruitment policies were in place that had been followed. Safe recruitment practices included background and criminal records checks prior to staff starting work.

Some people needed more than one member of staff to provide support to them. The registered manager ensured that they could provide a workforce who could adapt and be flexible to meet people’s needs and when more staff were needed to deliver care, they were provided.

People said that staff were well trained and understood their needs. They told us that staff looked at their care plans and followed the care as required. People told us that staff discussed their care with them so that they could decide how it would be delivered.

Staff had been trained to administer medicines safely and staff spoke confidently about their skills and abilities to do this well. However, the medicines policy did not cover the processes for self-administration or the reporting process for drug errors.

We have made a recommendation about this.

The registered manager gave staff guidance about supporting people to eat and drink enough. People were pleased that staff encouraged them to keep healthy through eating a balanced diet and drinking enough fluids. Care plans were kept reviewed and updated.

There were policies in place that ensured people would be listened to and treated fairly if they complained. The registered manager ensured that people’s care was individualised to them and in some cases, people had written their own care plans.

Future Home Care is part of the Lifeways Group. A national provider of support services for people with diverse and often complex needs in community settings. The management team and staff were committed to the values of the organisation and ensured they took these into account when delivering care and support. The provider and management team wanted to continually improve and had development plans in place that were being implemented to further enhance the quality of the service.

People were happy with the leadership and approachability of the service’s registered manager and the management team. Staff felt well supported by registered manager. Audits were effective and risks were monitored by the registered manager to keep people safe.