Archived: Elite Staffing UK

The service provides domiciliary care services to people in their own homes. The people who receive these services have a wide range of needs and most are older people. The service provides minimum call times of 30 minutes. At the time of the inspection there were 16 people receiving support from the service.

The service did not have 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The previous registered manager had recently left the service and was in the process of deregistering as the registered manager. A new manager had been appointed but was not yet registered and the nominated individual was overseeing the day to day running of the service.

People told us they felt safe and staff had received safeguarding training in order to keep people safe. Staff understood their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding people from abuse or harm and appropriate action was taken when necessary to protect people.

Risks to people were not always assessed and therefore measures to reduce risks were not always given consideration. This demonstrated a breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

The recording of the administration of people’s medicines was not safe. Records did not provide a clear and accurate record of the medicines people were prescribed and the medicines which staff had administered. This demonstrated a further breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and there were robust recruitment practices in place, which meant staff had been recruited safely.

Staff told us they felt supported and staff had received induction and training. However some staff had not fully understood their training. Although staff felt supported, regular formal supervision did not take place.

People and relatives we spoke with told us staff were caring. People’s privacy and dignity were respected and people received support in terms of their religious and cultural needs. Staff developed positive relationships with the people they supported.

Care and support plans were detailed and personalised, taking into account people’s choices and preferences. People told us they had been involved in their care planning and felt they could make their own choices.

People and staff felt the service had improved since the beginning of the year. Staff felt supported and people felt able to contact the office in the knowledge they would be listened to. The manager had begun to audit some areas of practice. However, auditing systems were not yet robust and areas which had been identified as requiring improvement through the inspection process had not been identified through auditing. This demonstrated a breach of Regulation 17 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 the report.

'My carers always turn up when they are supposed to. They are well trained and respectful. If I had any concerns I would feel able to raise these with the manager.'

'I would recommend this service. The staff are very good with my relatives. They are punctual and we have a consistent staff team. They are kind, polite and well trained. They follow the care plan we agreed and follow health and safety procedures.'

'The staff are all lovely and very trustworthy.'

We saw on a completed survey the person using the service had strongly agreed the following: Staff are professional and respectful. Staff are well trained and the care has improved my quality of life. I feel comfortable requesting changes and would feel able to contact the manager with any concerns.

'It's a good company to work for the training is good and we are kept up to date.'

"We recruit staff who we would be happy to let care for our own relatives."

There were systems in place to make sure that people were kept safe and procedures for reporting any suspected abuse.

Before starting work staff were being properly checked to make sure they were suitable and safe to work with vulnerable people. Our conversations with people and staff indicated that staff were well trained and felt supported in their role.

There was a complaints procedure in place and people told us they would feel able to raise any concerns.