Archived: Lav Care Services - St Neots

Updated 22 August 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements of the regulations associated with the Act and looked at the quality of the service to provide a rating.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by 2 inspectors and 2 Experts 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 is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post who was also the provider.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider/registered manager would be available.

Inspection activity started on 6 June 2023 and ended 15 June 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We also sought feedback from the local authorities who used the service. The provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 3 people who used the service and 9 relatives. We spoke with 3 staff including the registered manager/provider and care workers. We received feedback from an additional 16 staff. We assessed the care plans, risk assessments and medicine administration records for 3 people. Several governance records were also assessed including staff recruitment records for 3 staff, and quality assurance audits.

Updated 22 August 2023

Lav Care Services - St Neots is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people living in their own homes in the Cambridge, Peterborough and Wisbech areas. The service provides support to younger and older adults some of whom may be living with dementia, a physical disability, or a mental health issue. At the time of our inspection there were 16 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

The service was involved with sourcing accommodation for people, but the registration requirements were not fully understood by the provider. They told us they had sourced a consultant to assist with this and during the inspection contacted CQC to change their registration to include supported living. This is being reviewed by CQC.

People told us the service provided care that met their needs. They told us care was delivered with kindness and respect. People had been involved in the planning of their care as were their relatives as appropriate. 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.

People told us they felt safe, and systems were in place to help protect people from the risk of harm, abuse, and improper treatment.

Risks had been identified to people who used the service, and staff. Care plans were detailed and individual to each person. People told us they received a flexible and responsive service.

Staff told us they felt supported, and we saw they had been safely recruited. References and other checks were completed to review the suitability of staff for their role. Staff received an induction and completed training. Their competency to perform key aspects of their role such as medicine administration was assessed. People told us they had confidence in the staff’s abilities.

Systems were in place to oversee and assess the quality of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

The rating for this inspection was good at the last inspection on 21 September 2021 (published 5 October 2021).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good.

Follow up

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