This inspection took place on 7 June 2016 and was announced. The registered manager was given 48 hours’ notice because the service provides a domiciliary care service. This was to ensure that members of the management team and staff were available to provide us with the information and the records to review. At our last inspection in February 2014 we found the provider was meeting the regulations we inspected. There was a registered manager in post. 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.
Pleasant Home Health is a domiciliary care service that provides support, including personal care, to people in their own homes. At the time of our visit they were providing personal care to 22 people. 70 % of the people were funded by the local authority with the remaining 30% either partially or wholly funding via direct payments.
People told us they felt safe and no concerns about the staff that came to their homes. They told us they were treated with dignity and respect and felt listened to by staff. Staff were polite, considerate and focussed on people’s holistic needs.
People were involved in planning their care. Care plans were reviewed at regular intervals or as people’s conditions changed. Comprehensive risk assessments were in place for people and their environment and these were understood by staff.
Medicines were managed safely by staff that had been trained and understood the principles of handling medicines.
People told us that staff came in clean uniforms and used gloves appropriately. Staff had access to protective clothing and had relevant food hygiene training to enable them to safely prepare breakfast for people and heat up meals.
There were robust recruitment practices to ensure staff were, matched appropriately to people’s needs. Staff had a comprehensive induction, training, supervision, spot checks and annual appraisals to ensure they were up to date with practice so as to effectively support people.
People were supported to maintain a balanced diet when it was part of their package. They told us staff were supportive and helped them get in touch with other health care professionals in order to meet their healthcare needs.
Complaints were acknowledged, investigated and responded to in a timely manner. People said they would not hesitate to make a complaint and were confident that action would be taken to resolve the complaint.
People, their relatives and staff thought the registered manager was approachable and that the service was well run. We found there was an open and honest culture. Records were stored properly, However some records lacked dates and others were crossed out.
We have made a recommendation about maintaining records according to best practice guidance.