23 January 2017
During a routine inspection
Care Visions at Home provides personal care for people in their own homes. There were 72 people using the service.
The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.
People said they felt safe with care staff and were well cared for. Staff were aware of safeguarding vulnerable adult procedures and expressed confidence that concerns would be appropriately dealt with. Incidents were investigated and dealt with to ensure people remained safe.
Risks associated with people’s care needs and working practices were assessed and steps taken to reduce the likelihood of harm occurring. Staff had access to personal protective equipment, such as gloves and aprons. They were aware of and trained in good hygiene practices.
People told us staff were caring courteous, professional and polite. Staffing levels were sufficient to safely meet people’s needs, with ongoing recruitment to improve the ability of the agency to ensure staffing consistency. The provider had a robust system to ensure new staff were subject to thorough recruitment checks.
Systems for the safe management of medicines had been developed to ensure medicines were handled safely and accounted for.
Where appropriate, people’s mental capacity was considered through relevant areas of care, such as with medicines and distressed behaviour. Staff routinely obtained people’s consent before providing care.
Staff had completed safety and care related training relevant to their role and the needs of people using the service. Further training was planned to ensure their skills and knowledge were up to date. Staff were well supported by the registered manager and other senior staff. The provider had met the assurances they had given in their action plan following a previous breach of legal requirements relating to supporting their staff.
People were supported with eating and drinking where this was an assessed need. People’s health needs were considered in the planning and delivery of care. Help from external professionals, such as the GP, was sought if necessary. This ensured people’s general medical needs were met.
Staff understood the importance of promoting people’s privacy, dignity and confidentiality. Staff were able to clearly explain how they met people’s needs and we saw care plans and associated documentation were clear and person centred.
People using the service and staff spoke well of the registered manager and they felt the service had good leadership. We found there were effective systems to enable people to raise complaints, and to assess and monitor the quality of the service. Staff performance was subject to periodic spot checks. Quality monitoring included feedback from people receiving care.