Martworld Care Services Limited

Martworld Care services is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service supported 10 people.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People felt safe when being supported by staff and their relatives had no concerns about the safety of their loved ones. People and their relatives confirmed staff arrived on time and they were informed if staff were running late. People were supported by a consistent core group of staff. People received the support they needed to take their medicines. Staff knew how to escalate any concerns and were aware of any potential risks when providing support to people.

Staff felt supported and had the training they needed to meet people’s needs. People’s needs were assessed before they used the service to ensure their needs could be met. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People and relatives told us staff were caring and involved them in their daily care. People told us the staff encouraged them to be independent, protected their privacy and treated them with dignity and respect.

People and their relatives were involved in the development, and review of their care plan. A complaints procedure was in place and people and their relatives knew how to raise concerns and felt confident these would be addressed. Systems were in place to ensure any communication needs people had were identified, and arrangements made to meet these.

People, relatives and staff thought the service was managed well. The registered manager was described as approachable, caring, open and transparent in the way they managed the service. Systems were in place to monitor the delivery of the service.

Formal records were not in place to demonstrate the recruitment checks undertaken on some staff. Audits had not been completed on staff files to ensure they contained all of the required information. Audits of some records needed to be more robust to ensure they identified areas for improvement. These shortfalls were addressed by the registered manager during and following our inspection.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published 28 September 2018).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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

This was the first inspection of this service.

Martworld Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to younger and older adults living in their own homes who may have a learning disability, mental health condition, physical disability, sensory disability or dementia. On the day of the inspection 6 people were receiving support.

Martworld Care Services Limited is required to have a registered manager in post. At the time of inspection the nominated individual was in the role of ‘acting manager’. The nominated individual had begun the process of becoming the registered manager. 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We found that risk assessments were not always in place in order to mitigate any risk to people. Medicines were not always recorded correctly to show that people had their medicine as prescribed. References were not always taken correctly for new staff members. People felt safe in the care of staff members and were happy with staffing levels.

People felt that staff knew their needs and provided related care. Calls were carried out in a timely manner with no regular delay. Staff had an effective induction and received ongoing appropriate training. Staff gained consent from people prior to carrying out care and made people aware of the actions they were to take.

Staff were kind and caring towards people and positive relationships had been formed. Staff enabled people to be independent and to make choices where possible. People’s privacy and dignity needs were maintained by staff members caring for them.

Care plans were in place and these provided information on people’s needs. The cultural needs of people were acknowledged. People knew how to make complaints and were satisfied that they were dealt with appropriately, although related paperwork was not always completed adequately.

Audits did not always discover gaps in recording and there was some confusion over what had or hadn’t been audited. Spot checks were carried out to assess staff competency. The manager knew people well and their needs and responded to any issues. Team members were invited to meetings and able to voice their views. Feedback was taken from people to assess their opinions on the service. The acting manager worked in partnership with other agencies.