16 May 2017
During a routine 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.