Archived: Meridian Health and Social Care - Tamworth

Sevacare Tamworth is a domiciliary care agency that was providing personal care to 115 people in their own homes and over at the time of the inspection. At the time of inspection, the service cared for people in the wider communities of Tamworth, Burton-on-Trent, Lichfield and Burntwood, as well as at an extra care housing location in Burton-on-Trent.

People’s experience of using this service:

All of the people we spoke with felt safe with the care and support they received from staff. One person summarised this by telling us, “I feel very safe because of the way they treat me with respect and they are caring, they know my limitations. “

People told us the service did not miss any calls and that generally staff were on time, with a few exceptions that had been explained. All of the people we spoke with talked positively about the staff who came to see them and felt they were competent in their role. Apart from a few smaller issues, people we spoke with told us they were satisfied with the care they received and talked positively about the service.

People told us staff were able to meet their needs and were respectful of their individual preferences and diversity. We found that complaints raised had been listened to and investigated by the registered manager. People who used the service and staff told us the registered manager was approachable and helpful.

Some people felt that communication between the service and them could be improved, especially regarding who would come to provide the care. The service was aware that particularly at weekends there needed to be greater consistency of staffing and the registered manager was addressing this.

We found that some record keeping needed to be improved to ensure people’s information was personalised and up to date to inform care. We received positive feedback from the local authority about how the service worked in partnership with them to meet people’s needs.

The service continued to meet the characteristics of Good in most areas. More information is in the full report, which is available on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Rating at the last inspection:

At the last inspection the service was rated Good (9 September 2016). We rated the service as Requires Improvement for ‘Well-led’, which remained at this inspection.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection that was scheduled based on the previous rating. We inspected to check whether the service had sustained its Good rating.

Follow up:

We will continue with our ongoing monitoring of the service.

There was a registered manager in post. 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 happy with the support they received from the service. However, some people did not receive their calls at the agreed time. Staff rotas did not include travel time between calls and staff were not always able to stay for the agreed length of time.

People were safe and protected from harm. Staff were aware of how to protect people and recognise signs of abuse. Risks to individuals were assessed, managed and reviewed. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. The provider had safe recruitment processes in place and people’s medicines were managed safely.

Staff had the knowledge and skills required to support people and meet their needs. People were able to make decisions about their care, and when needed, decisions were made in their best interests. People were supported to maintain a balanced diet, and when required staff ensured their food was prepared according to their specialist needs. People were supported to maintain their health and physical wellbeing.

Positive caring relationships had been developed between the staff and people who used the service. People were encouraged to maintain their independence and were involved in making decisions about the level of support they needed. People were supported in a courteous and respectful manner.

People received support that was individual to them and responsive to their needs. People were encouraged to contribute to the planning of their care, and their needs had been reviewed and re-assessed. Feedback about the service was encouraged and people knew how to raise any concerns, which the provider acted upon.

People spoke positively about the support they received and told us that the management team were approachable and supportive. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and the provider used these to drive continuous improvement.

We had been told that Sevacare had a system for managing complaints. However, in May 2013, the service did not produce a comprehensive file for complaints and we found that improvements were needed to the way complaints were managed.

We returned to Sevacare in Tamworth in February 2014. On this occasion we were able to look at a file which contained details of the Sevacare complaints policy and procedures plus details of complaints made and responses given since January 2013. We found that the service was fully compliant with our regulation in respect of complaints management.

We found that people had clear care plans based on a thorough assessment of their needs. Care workers were recruited following rigorous processes. We saw evidence that they had the skills to do their work. The provider company had established systems for monitoring the quality of the service provided for people and reviewed the delivery of care regularly.

Care workers received safeguarding training before they started working. We found that the quality of this training might be improved. Sevacare had a system for managing complaints. However, in May 2013, we found that improvements were needed to the way complaints were managed.