Archived: West Kent Community Care

During this visit we found that improvements had been made and robust recruitment procedures were in place to make sure that people who used the service were protected.

West Kent Community Care was a new service which provided a bathing service to people who live in the community. The manager told us about plans they had to expand the range of services offered in the future.

People we spoke with told us that they were pleased with the service they received. People said, 'I'm very happy with the bathing service, the carer is excellent'. 'I always feel safe'. We spoke with relatives who told us 'We are very happy with the service." "There have been no problems and staff do things the way X wants them done". 'I am perfectly satisfied with the way things are going'. 'Completely satisfied, no complaints at all'.

We found evidence that consent was obtained from people before care and support was provided. People's care and welfare needs were met and they were protected from risk of harm or abuse. The manager monitored the quality of the service through regular contact with the people who used the service.

People we spoke with told us that they were pleased with the service they received. One person said, 'I'm very happy with the bathing service, the carer is very good'. We spoke with some relatives who told us 'We are very happy with the service." "There have been no problems and staff are very respectful".

We found that people were treated with respect and were involved in planning how they wanted the service to be delivered. People's needs were fully assessed before they started using the service to make sure appropriate individual care and support was provided. People knew who to talk to if they had any concerns or complaints about the service.

We found that recruitment procedures were not sufficiently robust to make sure that all the information about staff, required in the Regulations, had been obtained before they started working with people who used the service.