Archived: Domiciliary Care Service

Updated 14 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.’

The office visit took place on 22 and 24 October 2018 and was announced. We told the provider we were coming so they could arrange to be there and arrange for care staff to be available to talk with us about the service. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the location provides a domiciliary care service. We needed to be sure that they would be in. The agency is a small agency.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked at information received from the local authority commissioners and the statutory notifications the provider had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us. Commissioners are people who contract care and support services paid for by the local authority.

During our visit we spoke with the registered manager, care manager, four relative,13 staff and one person who used the service. Most people using the service had communication difficulties. We spoke five relatives and eight staff. We reviewed four people’s care records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We looked at three staff recruitment files, staff training records, records of complaints, and records associated with the provider's quality monitoring systems.

Updated 14 December 2018

Friendship care is a domiciliary care service providing a service to people living in their own home. This announced inspection took place on 22 and 24 October 2018. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice that we would be visiting the service because we wanted to make sure staff and people would be available for us to speak with. At the time of the inspection 67 people were using the service.

At our last inspection on the 18 and 22 December 2015 we rated the service Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of Good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

On the first day of the inspection we found that not all the information such as complaints record, staff files and care records were not able to assess. The registered manager told us that records were kept in people homes, but also at small office in addition to the registered address, although these were not personal records. The registered manager arranged for all records to be brought to the registered address as all records relating to the service delivery is required to be kept at the registered address.

People were protected and kept safe by staff who understood their roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting them from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. Potential risks that staff needed to be aware of when supporting people were clearly outlined, regularly reviewed and updated appropriately. Sufficient levels of staff were made available to meet people’s needs.

Medicine was administered as safely as possible. Care staff followed the medication procedure, completed medicine care plans and recorded medicine administration. We found that care plans had details about medication and how to support people with their care needs.

People benefitted from continuity of staff, to ensure that relationships were built and people did not have to endure different staff for their care. The provider ensured that all new staff were provided with an induction before fully commencing in their role and staff received regular supervision to discuss their performance and development needs.

People’s human rights were respected by staff who worked within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005

People were supported with their health care need if required. Families were contacted if a person was unwell.

People continued to be supported by a committed and enthusiastic staff team who delivered care with kindness, respect and understanding. Staff built caring relationships with people and could meet their needs sensitively. The service and care staff were aware of people’s equality and diversity needs and endeavoured to meet them.

People were involved in the planning, assessment and review of their care which included people’s preferences and choices.

People knew who to contact if they were unhappy about any aspect of their care.

There was a system in place to manage the service however the records relating to this were not always completed to ensure that the system was effective.