Archived: Sylvan Home Care Services

Updated 21 April 2016

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 inspection took place on 24 March 2016. We gave 24 hours’ notice to make sure that the manager would be available. The inspection was carried out by one inspector. Before the inspection, the provider completed 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.

An Adult Social Care inspector visited the office on 24 March 2016 and looked at records, which included three people’s care records, three staff files and other records relating to the management of the service. We spoke with the manager, the coordinator and three other members of staff. The visit was followed up by the inspector with telephone calls to people who used the service and their families.

Before our inspection, we looked at information the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had received about the service including notifications received from the registered manager. We checked that we had received these in a timely manner. We also looked at safeguarding referrals, complaints and any other information from members of the public.

Updated 21 April 2016

We visited Sylvan Home Care Services on 24 March 2016. Sylvan Home Care Services provides care and support to people living in their own homes on the Wirral. At the time of our visit, the service was providing support for 10 people, and eight support staff were employed.

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

The provider had systems in place to ensure that people were protected from the risk of harm or abuse. We saw there were policies and procedures in place to guide staff in relation to safeguarding adults.

We found that recruitment practices were in place which included the completion of pre-employment checks prior to a new member of staff working at the service. Staff received regular training to enable them to work safely and effectively

The majority of the responses from people who spoke with the inspector was that the service was either very good or excellent. People told us they were very happy with the staff and felt that the staff understood their care needs. People confirmed that staff stayed for the length of time allocated and arrived on time. People also confirmed that calls were rarely missed and that an on-call system was always available. The majority of people we spoke with had no complaints about the service.

The staff employed by Sylvan Home Care Services knew the people they were supporting and the care they needed. People who used the domiciliary service and staff told us that Sylvan Home Care Services was well led and staff told us that they felt well supported in their roles. We saw that the manager was a visible presence and it was obvious that they knew the people who they supported really well.