Meridian Health and Social Care - Wakefield

Updated 5 October 2022

The inspection

We carried out this performance review and assessment 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.

Unlike our standard approach to assessing performance, we did not physically visit the office of the location. This is a new approach we have introduced to reviewing and assessing performance of some care at home providers. Instead of visiting the office location we use technology such as electronic file sharing and video or phone calls to engage with people using the service and staff.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing. 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 bought or 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 and support service.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a manager in post who was in the process of registering with us.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be available to support with the inspection process. Inspection activity started on 21 September 2022 and ended on 23 September 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we 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

This performance review and assessment was carried out without a visit to the location’s office. We used technology such as telephone calls to enable us to engage with people using the service and staff, and electronic file sharing to enable us to review documentation. We spoke with eight staff and the manager. We spoke with seven people who used the service, six relatives and 1 professional. We reviewed the care records of ten people and three staff files. We reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, audits and checks.

Updated 5 October 2022

About the service

Meridian Health and Social Care - Wakefield is a domiciliary care agency and provides personal care and support to people who require assistance in their own home. At the time of our inspection there were 73 people being supported by the service. 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

People’s care plans and risk assessments were not always reviewed in a timely manner. People were not impacted by this and we saw care records were detailed and person centred. Staff had not undertaken specific training related to supporting people with a learning disability, however people told us staff offered day to day choices and promoted independence for them. There were sufficient staff to provide support to people and staff were safely recruited. Medicines were managed safely, staff were assessed for competency and were trained to administer medicines.

Right Care

People and their relatives were positive about the care people received and said staff were kind. People told us they were involved in pre assessments and their wishes were listened to. Staff understood how to promote privacy and dignity and people told us staff were respectful towards them. Choice of meals and drinks were offered to people that met their likes and dislikes.

Right Culture

The provider's systems and processes that monitored and improved quality and safety required improvements. Feedback was not sought from people in an accessible way and relatives’ feedback was not sought. Staff told us the manager was supportive and approachable and that staff morale was positive. People told us staff knew them well and they had a good rapport with 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.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 12 October 2020 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was requires improvement (published 7 April 2020).

Why we inspected

We carried out an inspection of a newly registered service to give the provider a rating.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the well-led sections of this full report.

Recommendations

We recommend the provider reviews the quality monitoring systems in place, to ensure records are up to date and feedback about the service is sought from people and their relatives.

We recommend the provider reviews the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture and implements this into practice for people and staff.

Follow up

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