AMG Nursing and Care Services - Chester

AMG Nursing and Care Services – Chester is a domiciliary care provider who provide the regulated activity of personal care to people living in their own homes. Some people using the service were not in receipt of the regulated activity. At the time of our inspection 184 people were in receipt of personal care.

People's experience of the service and what we found

The registered manager was clear about how the service should be provided and led by example. Care workers who supported people and the office staff team were passionate and fully committed to delivering high quality person-centred care and support to people.

People told us staff were caring and kind. Staff had a good understanding of how to support people in a way that promoted their privacy, dignity and independence.

People's needs and life history were comprehensively assessed before they start using the service, people and their relatives were fully involved in the assessment and care planning processes.

Staffing levels were monitored, and we received mixed feedback about the timekeeping of staff. The registered manager discussed about the challenges of having the appropriate staffing and on-going recruitment processes in place.

Staff training was up to date and staff also received regular supervision and appraisals to ensure their development and practice was meeting people's needs.

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

Rating at last inspection

Rated Good. Published on 29 May 2018

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the 'all reports' link for on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

AMG Nursing and care Services is a domiciliary care service offering personal care and support to 96 adults within their own homes across the Cheshire West and Chester area.

There was a registered manager at the service at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who is 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.

Safeguarding policies and procedures were in place and staff had all received training. Staff demonstrated understood about the different types of abuse and were able to describe the process if they had to alert any concerns they had.

The recruitment procedures at the service were robust. Records showed that enough staff were employed to meet people's needs. All staff had undertaken a comprehensive induction and had completed shadow shifts with an experienced member of staff. Mandatory training was up to date and staff had undertaken additional training to meet people's individual needs. Staff received regular support and supervision and had their competency checked. This meant staff had the right knowledge and skills to support people.

The registered provider undertook an assessment prior to a person using the service. The information from this was used to prepare person centred risk assessments and care plans. People and their chosen relatives were fully involved in the assessment and development of their care plans. Regular reviewed were completed to ensure information remained up to date. Daily records were consistently recorded to reflect the support people had received.

People's needs that related to age, disability, religion or other protected characteristics were considered throughout the assessment and care planning process.

Medication policies and procedures were in place. Staff had completed training and been assessed as competent to complete this task. The service worked in accordance with best practice guidelines.

People received support from regular staff that they had developed positive relationships with. Staff promoted people's independence and offered them choice.

People described staff as kind and caring and told us they treated them with dignity and respect.

The registered provider had a complaints policy that was readily available for people and their relatives. People told us they felt confident to raise a concern or complaint and felt their concerns would be listened and responded to.

The Care Quality Commission is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and to report on what we find. We saw that the registered provider had policies, staff had received training and guidance was available for staff in relation to the MCA. Staff demonstrated a basic understanding of this topic.

The registered provider had regular audits in place as part of their monitoring systems. These identified areas for development and improvement within the service.

Up to date policies and procedures were available to support the running of the service and these were regularly reviewed.