Abbey Care

Updated 11 October 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 31 July 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in and that staff would be available to talk with us.

We visited the office location on 31 July 2018 to see the manager, to interview staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. The inspection team consisted of one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service. The expert by experience spoke to people and their relatives by telephone to gain their views on the service.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. We considered the information which had been shared with us by the local authority and others, looked at safeguarding alerts which had been made and notifications which had been submitted. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law.

We spoke with ten people and three relatives on the telephone. We spoke with a health care professional by telephone. We spoke with the registered manager, the provider and five staff members. We looked at a range of documents including policies and procedures, care records for

12 people and other documents such as safeguarding, incident and accident records, medication records and quality assurance information. We reviewed three staff records including recruitment, supervision and training information as well as team meeting minutes and we looked at the provider’s information systems, including for the allocation of care visits.

This was the first inspection since the service registered on 31 August 2017.

Updated 11 October 2018

This inspection took place on 31 July 2018 and was unannounced. Abbey Care 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, younger disabled adults, people who were living with dementia or mental health conditions.

The service has a registered manager. They were present throughout the inspection visit. 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.

This was the first inspection since the service registered with CQC on 31 August 2017, the provider had been registered with CQC previously at a different location. On the day of the inspection there were 130 people receiving home care from Abbey Care.

Not all records were complete and accurate. The provider was in the process of updating their systems and this meant that some records were not complete. We identified this as an area of practice that needed to improve and become embedded within practice.

People told us that they were happy with the standard of care provided. The people and relatives that we spoke with were consistently positive in their praise of the staff. People’s comments included, “They are friendly and professional,” and “They are a great bunch, really good at their work, which they clearly like.”

Risks to people were identified and managed to support them to remain safe. Staff understood their responsibilities regarding safeguarding people from harm and abuse. There were enough staff to ensure that people received the visits they needed within the planned timeframe.

Staff received the training and support they needed to be effective in their roles. People told us they had confidence in the skills of the staff. Comments included, “The staff are really good, they are very skilled.” Staff understood their responsibilities regarding obtaining consent from people. People were supported to maintain their health with access to health care services and support with nutrition and hydration needs.

People said that staff were caring and kind. Staff had developed positive relationships with people and spoke about them with warmth and affection. People were supported to be involved in making decisions about their care and support. They told us that staff respected their privacy and protected their dignity. One person said, “They are very careful to make sure I’m not embarrassed about personal care. “

Care plans were holistic and provided detailed guidance for staff in how to provide care in a personalised way. People’s needs and preferences were considered. Staff noticed changes and care plans were adjusted to ensure people’s needs were met. The provider had a system for managing complaints and people were confident that their concerns would be listened to. People were supported with end of life care and staff worked effectively with other agencies and family members.

There was strong leadership and staff spoke highly of the registered manager. People described a well run service. The provider had introduces an electronic care planning system which provided them with facilities to monitor the quality of the service. They used this and other quality assurance systems to ensure that standards of care were maintained. One person told us, “ I have a team of carers and they are all marvellous, I couldn’t ask for more.”