Human Support Group Limited - Gateshead, Callendar Court

Updated 21 December 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors, two assistant inspectors 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 care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We also reviewed the information we held about the service. This included any statutory notifications received. Statutory notifications are specific pieces of information about events, which the provider is required to send to us by law.

We sought feedback from the local authority contracts monitoring and safeguarding adults' teams and reviewed the information they provided. We contacted the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), who commission services from the provider, and the local Healthwatch for their feedback. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people who used the service and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including the registered manager and regional director.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people's care records and five people's medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

Updated 21 December 2019

About the service

Human Support Group Limited - Gateshead, Callendar Court is a domiciliary care agency proving personal care and support to people living in their own flats within one large adapted building. Not everyone living at Callendar Court received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help and with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of inspection 33 people were receiving personal care.

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

People felt safe living at the service and spoke highly of staff and the management team. Staff were kind, caring and respectful with people.

Since our last inspection the registered manager and regional director had worked hard to improve the service. They had looked at opportunities to improve every aspect of the service and were committed to improving the service further.

There was enough staff available to support people with their allocated visits and that staff were available in an emergency situation. Staff told us that they felt the staffing levels were appropriate to meet the needs of people. People told us that staff took their time and chatted whilst delivering personal care.

The service worked in partnership with other agencies to support people to attend activities within Callendar Court and within the local community. People were encouraged to remain as independent as possible by staff.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Care plans were person centred and were developed from in depth initial assessments of people’s needs. People had regular reviews of their care needs and referrals were made to other healthcare professionals. Care plans included advice and guidance from other agencies.

Medicines were safely managed, regularly reviewed and staff received competency checks to make sure they could safely administer medicines. Risks to people were identified and actions put in place for staff to follow to mitigate risks.

The registered manager provided support to staff via team meetings, regular supervisions and appraisals. Staff received an induction from the provider and regular refresher training.

The quality and assurance systems in place had been improved since our last inspection and the registered manager was able to continuously improve the quality of care provided due to this.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 24 May 2019) and there were multiple breaches of the regulations. At this inspection the registered manager and regional director had taken robust action to improve.

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found the service had made sustained improvements and addressed the issues identified at the last inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor the service through information we receive from the service, provider, the public and partnership agencies. We will re-visit the service in line with our inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.