Aspirations Northwest Adults

Updated 14 May 2019

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 team consisted of two adult social care inspectors.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks relating to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided.

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.

At the time of our inspection the registered provider was providing regulated activity to 15 people.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service five days’ notice of the inspection site visits because some of the people using it could not consent to a home visit from an inspector, which meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.

Inspection site visit activity started on 24 April 2019 and ended on 25 April 2019. We visited the office location on 24 April 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Our planning took into account information the provider sent us since the last inspection. We also considered information about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we looked at issues raised in complaints and how the service responded to them. We assessed the Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR is information providers must send us to give us key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection, we spoke with three people using the service and visited them at their home. We also spoke with the registered manager, two relatives and eight members of staff.

We looked at the care records for five people and a selection of other records including quality monitoring records, recruitment and training records for four staff.

Updated 14 May 2019

About the service:

Aspirations provides care and support to people living in the community. At the time of our inspection 15 people were in receipt of the regulated activity ‘personal care’. People were living in supported living houses. Senior support workers managed the everyday running of the supported living houses and the registered manager had oversight of the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

Everyone we spoke with said they felt safe being supported by Aspirations. Staff were recruited safely, and risks to people’s health and safety were assessed. Medication was stored in people’s homes safely, and was only administered by staff who were trained to do so. Accidents and incidents were tracked, and the registered manager was in the process of implementing a new analysis tool. Staff were able to describe the course of action the would take to report safeguarding concerns.

There was a training programme in place and staff had completed all training courses deemed mandatory by the registered provider. The service was working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act and people were fully involved regarding decisions about their care and support. Staff were required to engage in supervision and had an annual appraisal. People were supported to eat and drink in accordance with their needs.

People were involved in their care and support plans. We received positive comments about the staff in relation to the support they provided. Everyone said staff were kind and caring. Staff were able to describe how they ensured people's dignity was respected.

We observed, heard and read examples evidencing how people’s routines and choices were listened to and respected. There was a complaints procedure in place and we checked the status of complaints and how they had been responded to.

The service was managed well, and the ethos and culture of the service was well implemented with the staff team that provided the care. Staff all spoke well about the registered manager. Audits were in place which were effective in highlighting any areas for improvement. The registered manager was aware of their role with CQC and had notified us of all incidents as required.

Rating at last inspection:

Rated ‘Requires Improvement’ report published April 2018.

Why we inspected:

This inspection was conducted in line with our inspection schedule.

Follow up:

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

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