Archived: Verina Daly Care

Updated 4 July 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.

This inspection took place on 16 May and 2 June 2017 and were announced. The provider was given 24 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service; we needed to be sure that someone would be available in the office. The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an expert by experience. The expert by experience had personal experience of caring for people who used domiciliary care services.

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. We also checked other information that we held about the service and the service provider, including notifications we received from the service. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law.

During the inspection we spoke with eleven people who used the service and two relatives by telephone. We also spoke with a senior care worker and three care workers by telephone.

We met and spoke with the provider who is also the registered manager, the recently appointed care manager and the team leader. We looked at care records for six people. We also reviewed records about how the service was managed, including staff training and recruitment records, risk assessments and quality assurance.

Updated 4 July 2017

Verina Daly Care provides a domiciliary care service to people living in their own homes. Services range from 30 minute ‘pop ins’ to 24 hour care. There were 22 people receiving a personal care service at the time of this inspection.

At the time of this inspection the provider was in the process of moving the agency office to another location.

The service has a registered manager, who is also the service provider. 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.

We received positive feedback about the service, the provider and the staff. People and their relatives felt the agency supported them in a kind and caring manner to meet their needs.

Staff recruitment processes were not robust. All the information required to inform safe recruitment decisions was not readily available prior to applicants starting in their role.

Staff had not all received appropriate training updates in a timely manner to ensure they could deliver effective care to people.

The provider had not implemented effective quality assurance systems to assess, monitor and continuously improve the quality and safety of the service.

People received a personal care service that was responsive to their needs. They and their relatives were confident to share any concerns and that these would be acted on. Systems were in place to help ensure any concerns or complaints were responded to appropriately.

Staff understood how to identify, report and manage any concerns related to people’s safety and welfare. There were systems and processes in place to protect people from risk of harm, including how medicines were managed.

There were sufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people’s needs.

People were supported to have enough to eat and drink. The agency assisted people to obtain advice and support from other health professionals to maintain and improve their health or when their needs changed.

There was an open and inclusive culture within the service and staff felt supported in their roles by the management team.

We found three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.