Able Carers (York & Harrogate)

Updated 20 December 2018

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 comprehensive inspection took place between 1 and 14 November 2018. We gave the service two days’ notice of our first visit to the office on 1 November 2018 because we needed to be sure someone would be available to assist us with the inspection and organise for us to visit people who used the service. We visited two people in their own homes on 14 November 2018. We made telephone calls to other people who used the service between the 6 and 13 November 2018.

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors on the first day of inspection and one inspector for the remainder of the inspection.

Before our inspection, we looked at information we held about the service. The provider sent us a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service, such as notifications we had received from the registered manager. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We sought feedback from the local authority contract monitoring team prior to our visit.

During the inspection we spoke with six people who used the service and four relatives. We spoke with the registered manager, operations manager, two ‘step up’ senior care workers and two care workers. We looked at a range of documents and records related to people’s care and the management of the service. We viewed four people's care records, medication records, three staff recruitment, induction and training files and a selection of records used to monitor the quality of the service. We visited two people in their own homes and observed care staff providing support and interacting with them.

Updated 20 December 2018

Able Carers (York & Harrogate) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Not everyone who uses the service receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. The service supports older people, people living with dementia, mental health needs, physical disabilities, sensory impairments and younger adults. At the time of our inspection, the service was supporting 69 people with a regulated activity.

At our last inspection we rated the service Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of Good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

The service is now rated Requires Improvement in one key question: ‘Is the service well-led?’. This is because the quality assurance checks and audits in place were not being used effectively, to identify record keeping issues and drive improvement. However, people expressed satisfaction with the care they received. There was a registered manager in post. People and staff spoke positively about the management of the service.

Risks to people were assessed and action taken to reduce them. The provider took prompt action to address anomalies we identified in some risk assessments. There was a system to record any accidents and incidents, and the provider took appropriate responsive action to learn from any incidents that occurred. Staff were aware of different types of abuse and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns. Where people required it, they were supported to receive their medicines in line with their prescription.

There was a system in place to organise care visits and people told us staff usually arrived on time. There was an electronic call monitoring system, which meant that the provider could identity if care staff had arrived to care visits on schedule. Appropriate recruitment checks were undertaken before staff started their employment, to ensure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people. Staff received an induction, training and on-going supervision to give them the skills and knowledge they needed to care for people effectively.

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 received support with preparing meals where required. There was information for staff about people’s nutritional and healthcare needs in care plans. Relatives gave us examples to show that staff had been proactive in identifying and responding to health concerns and changes in people's needs.

Staff treated people with dignity and respect. People told us care staff were kind and caring, and we observed positive interactions between staff and people who used the service. People told us they usually had consistent care staff, which enabled them to build relationships.

Care plans were in place to give staff the information they needed to support people in line with their preferences. This included information about people’s communication needs. The provider had a policy for responding to any concerns and complaints. We found issues raised had been responded to appropriately and people told us they would feel confident in reporting any concerns.

Our discussions with staff indicated there was a positive, person-centred culture within the service.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.