Green Arrow Care

Updated 15 December 2018

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

This inspection took place on 21 November and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in. The site visit of the inspection was carried out by one inspector and follow-up telephone calls by a second inspector.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we already held about this service. This included details of its registration, previous inspection reports and any notifications of serious incidents the provider had set us. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We contacted the local authority with responsibility for commissioning care from the service to seek their views.

During the inspection we spoke with three staff; the registered manager, the operations manager and the administrator. After the inspection we spoke with a further two staff by telephone, who were both care assistants. We also spoke with three relatives of people who used the service by telephone. We examined three sets of records relating to people including care plans, risk assessments and medicines charts. We checked staff recruitment, training and supervision records of four staff. We looked at the quality assurance and monitoring systems that were used by the service and checked several policies and procedures.

Updated 15 December 2018

This inspection took place on 21 November and was unannounced. At the previous inspection of this service in October 2017 we found four breaches of regulations. This was because medicines were not managed safely, staff had not undertaken training required for their role, poor practices were in place in relation to staff recruitment and the provider had not established effective systems for monitoring the quality and safety of the service. Overall, we rated the service as Requires Improvement. During this inspection, we found all those issues had been addressed and we have rated the service as Good.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It is registered to provide a service to older adults, younger adults, people living with dementia, people with learning disabilities or on the autistic spectrum and people with mental health needs. Five people were using the service at the time of our inspection.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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.

Appropriate safeguarding procedures were in place and people told us they felt safe using the service. Risk assessments provided information about how to support people in a safe manner. There were enough staff working at the service to meet people's needs and robust staff recruitment procedures were in place. Staff had a good understanding about infection control issues and used protective clothing to help prevent the spread of infection. Although the service did not support anyone with medicines at the time of our inspection, systems were in place to do this in a safe manner if required. People were provided with support to take their medicines in a safe way.

The service carried out an assessment of people’s needs prior to the provision of care. This enabled the service to determine of it was a suitable care provider for everyone. Staff undertook an induction training programme on commencing work at the service and had access to regular on-going training and supervision to help them develop relevant skills and knowledge. The service operated within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The service supported people to access health care professionals and staff were aware of what to do if a person faced a medical emergency.

People were supported by the same regular care staff so they were able to build good relationships. People were treated in a caring and respectful manner by staff and were supported to maintain their independence. The right to confidentiality was taken seriously by the service and staff understood the importance of this.

Care plans were in place which set out how to meet people’s individual needs and these were subject to review. The service worked closely with other agencies to meet people’s needs in relation to end of life care. The service had a complaints procedure in place and people knew how to make a complaint.

People and staff spoke positively about the registered manager. Systems were in place for monitoring the quality of support provided at the service. Some of these included seeking the views of people who used the service.