Care Support MK Ltd

Care Support MK is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 7 people the time of the inspection. They specialise in supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people who live at home with family members or in supported living housing. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

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

Right Support:

Medicines were administered safely, some areas of medicines recording could be strengthened to reduce the risk of errors. We have made a recommendation to the provider about medicines management. People received safe care and support in their own homes. Staff received training in safeguarding and knew how to protect people from the risk of abuse. Risks to people's safe care and support were assessed and recorded. Staff reported accidents and incidents and these were followed up appropriately and reviewed by the management team. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives, staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care:

When people showed behaviour which may indicate distress, staff knew how to offer care and support which reduced the risk of escalation. Positive behaviour support plans gave detailed, personalised guidance to staff on how people expressed their emotions and mood. Staff were recruited safely and people received support from a small team of consistent staff as far as possible.

Right Culture:

Management oversight of the service was effective, improvements to quality assurance processes could strengthen this further. The management team encouraged an open and positive culture and feedback confirmed this. The service was well run and provided high quality, consistent care to people in their own homes. Staff felt respected, supported and valued in their roles. Staff supported people to flourish and achieve good outcomes. Positive feedback was received from professionals who worked with the provider.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 21 October 2017).

Why we inspected

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

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Care Support MK on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Care Support MK Ltd is a home care service that provides personal care to people with learning disabilities and autism, who live in their own homes in order for them to maintain their independence.

At the time of our inspection the provider confirmed they were providing personal care to 15 people.

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.

Staff had a good understanding safeguarding procedures, the signs of abuse, and the procedures that should be followed to report abuse. Staff were highly confident in reporting concerns and understood the safeguarding policy that was in place.

People had detailed risk assessments in place to enable them to be as independent as possible. Assessments considered risks that may be present within a person’s life, as well as considering the independence and freedom they required.

Staffing levels were adequate to meet people's current needs. The service employed enough staff to ensure that people were supported at the right level at all times. People were supported by the right ratio of staff according to their assessed needs.

Staff recruitment procedures were robust and detailed , and ensured that appropriate pre-employment checks were carried out so only suitable staff worked at the service. No staff were able to be employed by the company without those checks being satisfactorily completed.

Staff induction training and on-going training was provided to ensure they had the skills, knowledge and support they needed to perform their roles. Staff had an in depth knowledge of how to support people and achieve their desired goals. All the training received was relevant and up to date, and included specific training on each individual being supported.

Staff skills and experience were organised and utilised effectively to maximise positive outcomes for people. People were matched with staff support that suited their specific needs and preferences.

We saw that medicines were administered and stored safely. Staff received training and competency checks to ensure that medication was administered safely.

Staff told us they were well supported by the registered manager and senior team, and had regular one to one supervisions. Staff valued supervision time and used it to give and receive feedback on the service they were providing.

People's consent was gained before any care was provided and the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 were met.

People were able to buy and choose the food and drink they wanted and staff supported people with this. People were encouraged to improve their independence and health through the ongoing support that staff had given with food, drink, shopping and cooking.

People were encouraged to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and were supported to access health appointments when necessary. A variety of healthcare professionals were involved in people’s ongoing care, which was supported by the service. The staff all understood the specific of each person’s health needs, and encouraged the choices that would support people’s health.

Staff treated people with kindness, dignity and respect and spent time getting to know them and their specific needs and wishes. Staff including the management, had an excellent knowledge of people’s needs.

People were involved in their own care where possible, and family members were involved when required. People and their family were able to contribute to the way in which they were supported.

The service was proactive and innovative in planning people’s care so that they felt listened to and empowered. People were supported in a creative and innovative way that identified their wishes and supported them to achieve their goals.

People’s needs were identified and responded to in a creative way, so that people felt cared for and had maximum opportunities to pursue leisure and employment.

The service was flexible and responsive to people’s needs which enabled them to live as full a life as possible. Strong links and activities were created within the community to enable people to feel a sense of belonging and achievement.

The service had a complaints procedure in place to ensure that people and their families were able to provide feedback about their care and to help the service make improvements where required.

Quality monitoring systems and processes were used effectively to drive future improvement and identify where action was needed.