Care Dynamics Yorkshire Limited

Care Dynamics Yorkshire Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.. It provides a service to older people and younger adults with various needs, including people living with learning disabilities and dementia. At the time of this inspection 28 people were using 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 the service and what we found:

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

Right Support

People and their relatives told us they felt safe and were supported safely. Risks were assessed and managed to ensure people could participate in day to day and social activities safely. 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 interest; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care

People were safeguarded from abuse and avoidable harm. There were sufficient numbers of staff and staff supported people in line with their individual preferences and agreed care plans. People were protected from the risk of infection as staff followed safe infection prevention and control practices. Medicines were managed in a safe way.

Right Culture

There was a very positive and open culture at the service and systems were in place to provide person-centred care. People and their relatives consistently told us how the provider had enabled them to have person-centred fulfilling outcomes in their daily lives.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good published 3 November 2023.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by the time since our last inspection. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good.

Follow Up

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

We inspected Care Dynamics Yorkshire Limited on the 10, 24 August 2017 and the 5 September 2017. We announced the first day of inspection 48 hours prior to our arrival to make sure the registered manager would be available. This was the first inspection of the service since it moved location.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

People told us they felt safe having their care and support provided by Care Dynamics. We found staff had received training in safeguarding vulnerable people and were aware of the correct action to take if they witnessed or suspected any abuse. Staff were aware of the whistleblowing (reporting poor practice) policy and told us they were certain any concerns they raised would be taken seriously by the registered manager.

Care records contained assessments that had been completed before people started to use the service. They were detailed and showed what support the person required and how the service planned to provide it. The assessment process ensured staff could meet people’s needs and the information gathered was used to develop support plans and risk assessments.

We found support plans were person centred and contained detailed information that guided staff on the level of support people needed to meet their health and social care needs. Care records were reviewed regularly to ensure they reflected people’s needs and there were detailed risk assessment in place.

People’s nutritional needs were met and people were encouraged to eat a varied and balanced diet. People told us staff treated them with kindness and respect and promoted their independence and right to privacy.

There were a sufficient number of staff employed for operational purposes and the staff recruitment process ensured only people suitable to work in the caring profession were employed. Staff received the training, support and supervision they needed to carry out their roles effectively.

The service had an infection control policy which gave staff guidance on preventing, detecting and controlling the spread of infection. Staff had received training on infection prevention and control.

The registered manager demonstrated a good understanding of their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and staff demonstrated good knowledge of the people they supported and their capacity to make decisions. The registered manager and staff were aware of the process to follow should a person lack the capacity to consent to their care.

People told us they had been consulted about their care records and felt involved in how their care was provided. People told us the staff were friendly and they were always supported by the same staff, who knew them well. The service placed importance on helping people to maintain relationships and promoted social contact. The care records we looked at contained information about people who were important to them.

We found that the registered manager and all the staff we spoke with were able to tell us about the people who used the service. They knew their likes and dislikes and things that were important to them. They all spoke respectfully and with warmth about people who used the service.

During our inspection we found both directors of the company, one of whom was the registered manager to be enthusiastic, caring and committed to providing a quality person centred service. We found they worked closely together and demonstrated they had a shared vision of the service they wished to provide.

There was a complaints procedure available which enabled people to raise any concerns or complaints about the care or support they received. People told us they felt able to raise any concerns with the registered manager and felt these would be listened to and responded to effectively and in a timely manner.

Policies and procedures we reviewed included protecting people’s confidential information and showed the service placed importance on ensuring people’s rights, privacy and dignity were respected.

There was a quality assurance monitoring system in place that was designed to continually monitor and identify shortfalls in service provision. Leadership within the service was well structured, open and transparent. This resulted in a caring culture that put people using the service at the centre.