Archived: Carewatch (Southend)

Updated 1 September 2017

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.

The inspection was unannounced and took place on the 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 25 and 26 July 2017.

The inspection team consisted of three inspectors and four Experts by Experience.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included notifications, which are documents submitted to us to advise of events that have happened in the service and the provider is required to tell us about. We used this information to plan what we were going to focus on during our inspection.

During our inspection we gained feedback about the service in a number of ways. We spoke with the deputy manager, the strategy and planning manager and a partner of the business. We contacted 42 staff members and 25 chose to speak with us. The Experts by Experience spoke with 58 people who received a service and also 21 relatives to gain their views. We also visited seven people within their own homes. Healthcare professionals were approached for comments about the service and any feedback received has been included in this report where possible. Before the inspection we sent out questionnaires and received responses from people who received a service (17), relatives (4) and health care professionals (2). Where possible feedback and comments have been incorporated into the report.

As part of the inspection we reviewed 24 people’s care records and seven care plan folders within people’s own homes. This included their care plans and risk assessments. We also looked at the files of ten staff members and their induction and staff support records. We reviewed the service’s policies, their audits, staff work sheets, complaint and compliment records, medication records and training and supervision records.

Updated 1 September 2017

This inspection took place over a number of days and these included 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 25 and 26 July 2017.

Carewatch Southend provides personal care and support to adults who live in their own homes in the geographical areas of Rochford, Rayleigh, Castle Point, Basildon and surrounding areas. It is a large service and provides care and support to over 800 people and employs over 250 staff.

The service has a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manager 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.

Systems were in place to assist people with the management of their medication and help ensure people received their medication as prescribed. However, we did find that people had sometimes received their medication too close together due to times of visits and that one prescription tablet did not always have sufficient time allocated for administration. Action was taken to rectify this straight away.

There were generally sufficient numbers of staff, with the right competencies, skills and experience available to help meet the needs of the people who used the service, but some people had experienced late or early calls which did not always meet their needs. The provider was very proactive at dealing with these types of concerns and we had confidence that people’s visit times would be addressed as a matter of priority.

Staff showed a good knowledge of safeguarding procedures and were clear about the actions they would take to help protect people. Risk assessments had been completed to help staff to support people with everyday risks and help to keep them safe.

Recruitment checks had been carried out before staff started work to ensure that they were suitable to work in a care setting. Staff told us that they felt well supported to carry out their work and had received regular supervision and training.

Where needed people were supported to eat and drink sufficient amounts to help meet their nutritional needs and staff knew who to speak with if they had any concerns around people’s nutrition. People were supported by staff to maintain good healthcare and were assisted to gain access to a range of healthcare providers, such as their GP, dentists, chiropodists and opticians.

People had agreed to their care and asked how they would like this to be provided. People said they had been treated with dignity and respect and that staff provided their care in a kind and caring manner. Assessments had been carried out and care plans had where possible been developed around each individual’s needs and preferences.

The registered manager had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and mental capacity assessments had been completed with additional assessments requested from the appropriate government body where people were not able to make significant decisions for themselves.

People knew who to raise complaints or concerns to. The service had a clear complaints procedure in place and people had been provided with this information as part of the assessment process. This included information on the process and also any timespan for response. We saw that complaints had been appropriately investigated and recorded.

The service had an effective quality assurance system and had regular contact with people who used the service. People felt listened to and that their views and opinions had been sought, as a result improvements had been made through learning from people’s views and opinions.