Background to this inspection
Updated
15 May 2019
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection Team:
This inspection was carried out by one inspector and one Expert by Experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The Expert by Experience made telephone calls to relatives of people who used the service.
Service and service type: SKCA Care is a domiciliary care agency based in Rickmansworth providing personal care to children and younger adults living with physical disability, learning disabilities and sensory impairment within their own homes. At the time of inspection, the service was supporting 29 people with personal care.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
What we did:
Prior to the inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service including notifications received by the Commission. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law. We asked the service to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
We were unable to conduct telephone interviews with people using the service due to their cognitive impairment. Therefore, we spoke with eight people’s relatives, five staff, the registered manager and administration and training manager. We reviewed five people’s care records which included care plans, risk assessments and medicines records. We looked at four staff files which included recruitment, training and supervision records. We received feedback from one health professional involved with the service.
Updated
15 May 2019
About the service: SKCA (formerly Special Kids Care Agency) is a community based service providing home care support to 29 children and young people living in their own homes.
People’s experience of using this service:
People benefited from an exceptionally caring service. People were extremely satisfied with the quality of the service they received and praised the caring and compassionate nature of the care staff. People had a core care team who knew their needs very well. Relatives told us they were involved in planning and consulted about care decisions.
People, relatives and particularly staff praised the supportive and responsive management structure in place at the service. The registered manager and registered provider enabled an open culture that advocated for people and their families which resulted in positive outcomes.
A very person-centred approach had been adopted in the assessing, planning and delivery of people's care and support. Care plans were exceptionally detailed.
Many relatives spoke of the service being tailor made to meet their loved one’s care needs. The service actively supported people to gain independence and learn life skills. The service offered a continuity of care as young people entered adulthood.
People and families were extremely complimentary about the support provided and told us how they had been able to maintain wider family relationships, work, education and social lives.
Relatives told us they trusted staff to keep their loved ones safe. Procedures and policies relating to safeguarding people from harm were in place and accessible to staff.
Detailed risk assessments were in place for people using the service and were reviewed and updated regularly.
The service operated a rigorous recruitment process which resulted in highly skilled and dedicated staff with low staff turnover.
Staff were well trained, skilled and motivated to deliver a high-quality level of care. Staff had received training tailored to people’s individual care needs and equipment used.
People were supported to maintain good health and had access to healthcare services. Staff worked with a range of health professionals to ensure they knew people’s care needs. Medicines were managed safely.
More information is in the full report
Rating at last inspection: Good. The last inspection report was published on 23 June 2016.
Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.
Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Outstanding.