Alina Homecare Specialist Care - Somerset

Updated 19 January 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was conducted by two 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 is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes and 'supported living' accommodation so they can live as independently as possible. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people's personal care and support.

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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced on the first day and announced on subsequent days.

We gave a short period notice for some of the inspection because some of the people using the service could not consent to a home visit from an inspector. This meant that we had to arrange for a ‘best interests’ decision about this.

Inspection activity started on 15 November 2022 and ended on 25 November 2022. We visited the location’s office/service on 15 and 22 November 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 19 members of staff which included the registered manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We spoke with 1 person who used the service and 6 relatives. We reviewed a range of records. This included 7 people’s care and medicine records. We looked at 3 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures and audits were reviewed.

Updated 19 January 2023

About the service

Alina Homecare Specialist Care - Somerset is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people living in their own homes in the community. It also provides care and support to people living in 'supported living' accommodation, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting 18 people with their personal care needs in Somerset and Dorset.

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.

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

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.

Right Support

Improvements were required to staffing, structures and communication to ensure a consistent service which enabled people to fully achieve their aspirations, pursue their interests and access their local community.

The service supported people to have choice, control and independence. Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that promoted positive health outcomes. The service had plans and guidance to support people with identified risks. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs.

Right Care

People received kind and supportive care. Staff responded to people’s individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right culture

The service was working to enable people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service. Staff valued and acted upon people’s views. Systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service to people. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity.

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 25 June 2021).

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.

The overall rating for the service has remained good.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Alina Homecare Specialist Care - Somerset 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.