Totus Care Ltd

Updated 9 August 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.

This announced inspection took place on 27, 28 and 29 June 2018 and was undertaken by one inspector. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because we needed to ensure someone was available to facilitate the inspection.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed safeguarding alerts; share your experience forms and notifications that had been sent to us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

We contacted the health and social care commissioners who monitor the care and support the people receive. We used the information they provided us to inform our planning of the inspection.

During the inspection we met with one person who used the service and spoke with three relatives. We spoke with six members of staff which included five support workers, the deputy manager and the registered manager who was also the provider. We also contacted a social care and health professional.

We reviewed three people’s care files, looked at three staff files and reviewed records relating to the management of medicines, complaints, training and how the registered persons monitored the quality of the service.

Updated 9 August 2018

Totus Care Ltd provides personal care services to people living either in their own or family home in the community. At the time of our inspection nine people were receiving care.

At our last inspection we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there were aspects of the service which were outstanding. 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.

The service demonstrated an excellent commitment to providing outstanding care which put people at the heart of everything. The provider who was also the registered manager led and inspired the staff to deliver person-centred care which put people at the heart of everything they did. This had led to consistently outstanding outcomes for people.

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

Staff continuously went the ‘extra mile’ to ensure that people lived as fulfilled and enriched lives as possible. They respected people’s individuality and enabled people to express their wishes and make choices for themselves. Positive therapeutic relationships had been developed and staff were proud of the support that they had provided to people and the positive outcomes they had observed.

People were supported to use communication aids and information was provided to people in an accessible format to enable them to make decisions about their care and support.

People who demonstrated behaviour that may challenge themselves or others received care that was based upon best practice guidelines. This met their individual needs and successfully reduced instances of incidents within people’s home and community.

Staff demonstrated the provider's values of offering person-centred care that respected people as individuals in all their interactions with people. Relatives and the professionals involved in people's care consistently told us that the service provided ‘exceptional care’ to people. People could be assured that they would be supported by sufficient numbers of staff selected to specifically to support them. Records showed that people received their care in the way they needed to maintain their safety.

People's health and well-being was monitored by staff and they were supported to access health professionals in a timely manner when they needed to. People were supported to have sufficient amounts to eat and drink to maintain a balanced diet.

Staff understood their responsibilities to safeguard people and knew how to respond if they had any concerns. Care plans contained risk assessments which gave detailed instructions to staff as to how to mitigate risks; these enabled and empowered people to live as independent a life as possible safely.

There was an effective system of quality assurance in place which ensured people had consistently received exceptional care and support. There was information available in different formats about how to complain. Relatives and staff were confident they would be listened to and appropriate action taken.

The people receiving care from Totus Care had an enhanced sense of well-being and quality of life because staff worked innovatively to enable people to have meaningful experiences and to become active members of the local community.