Archived: Ryfields Village

Updated 5 March 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was undertaken by one inspector.

Service and service type

Ryfields Village is a domiciliary care service providing support and personal care to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation on a shared site or in a shared building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support at the service.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours' notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the office would be open and that the manager or another senior person would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 January 2020 and ended on 24 January 2020. We visited the office location on both days of inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and contacted the local authority to gain their feedback. We also considered the findings of the service's visit from Healthwatch in March 2018. We used all this information to plan our inspection. The provider was not required by CQC to submit a Provider Information Return prior to this inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people who used the service. We also spoke with the manager, the deputy manager, an interim manager, a team leader and a care assistant.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people's care records and a sample of medication records. Four staff files, staff training and supervision records and relating to the management of the service.

Updated 5 March 2020

About the service

Ryfields Village is a domiciliary care agency. It is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, the service supported 50 people.

People’s experience of using this service

Throughout the inspection, the management team were open and transparent. It was obvious they were passionate about the service and committed to making any necessary improvements. However, there were elements of service management that required improvement.

Medication management was unsafe and placed people at risk of harm. People did not always receive their medicines as prescribed. Record keeping in some areas such as medication administration required improvement and CQC and the local authority had not always been notified about incidents of a safeguarding nature.

The majority of people’s needs and risks were properly assessed with guidance for staff to follow in the provision of their care. Some information needed updating or greater detail. People’s care plans were person centred. Their wishes and preferences with regards to their care were clearly documented and respected by staff.

People’s feedback on the service was positive. Everyone spoke highly of the staff team including the manager. On the whole people said they received support from the same staff most of the time. This enabled people to get to know and build positive relationships with the staff supporting them. People’s daily records showed that they received the support they needed in accordance with their care plan.

People told us that staff were kind, caring and patient. They told us their privacy and dignity were always respected and their independence promoted as much as possible. From the records we viewed and the feedback we received it was obvious that people’s care was planned and well organised.

Staff were recruited safely and received regular supervision and training. Staff told us they felt supported and that the management team were approachable and open. Staff spoken with knew people well and knew how to protect them from the risk of abuse.

People told us they knew how to make a complaint but no-one had any complaints about the support they received. Everyone was more than happy with the service they received.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 11 August 2016). There was also an inspection on 27 November 2019 however, the report following that inspection was withdrawn as there was an issue with some of the information that we gathered.

Why we inspected

This was a planned re-inspection because of the issue highlighted above.

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.

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