20 April 2017
During a routine inspection
At the last inspection of the service in July 2015 we rated the service as Good. Since the last inspection the provider had changed their registration details. This meant the service was required to be re-inspected and rated.
We visited the office of Homebased Care Coventry on 20 April 2017. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange for staff to be available to talk with us about the service. The visit was supported by the organisations quality manager and the compliance manager, who was also the nominated individual for the service.
A requirement of the provider’s registration is that they have a registered manager. There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was unavailable on the day of our visit.
There were systems and processes to protect people from risk of harm. Staff understood their responsibilities for keeping people safe and for reporting concerns about abuse or poor practice within the service. There were procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care and for managing people’s medicines safely. Staff’s suitability for their role was checked before they started working in people’s homes.
There were enough staff to deliver the care and support people required. Staff received an induction when they started working for the service and completed regular training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively. People told us staff had the skills to provide the care and support they required.
The managers and staff followed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Staff respected decisions people made about their care and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care.
People had different experiences with the times staff arrived to provide their care. Some people said staff arrived around the time expected; others said they had experienced late or missed calls. Some people told us the service they received at weekends was not as consistent or reliable as the service they received during the week.
Most people told us staff stayed long enough to provide the care they required and people said they received care from staff they knew. Staff we spoke with visited the same people regularly and knew how people liked their care delivered. Care plans provided guidance for staff about people’s care needs and instructions of what they needed to do on each call.
People told us staff were kind and respected their privacy. Staff felt supported to do their work effectively and said the managers were approachable and knowledgeable. There was an ‘out of hours’ on call system, which ensured management support and advice was always available for staff.
People knew how to make a complaint, and people and staff said they could raise any concerns or issues with the managers.
Quality assurance systems were in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service. These included asking people for their views about the service through telephone conversations, visits to review their care and annual questionnaires. Feedback gathered by the provider from people and their relatives was used to make improvements to the service. There was a programme of other checks and audits which the provider used to monitor and improve the service.