Background to this inspection
Updated
30 April 2015
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
This inspection included an office visit which took place on 19 January 2015 and was unannounced. This was conducted by an inspector and a specialist advisor with experience of managing a service of this type. Between this date and 6 February 2015, the inspector spoke with the staff and an expert by expert experience spoke with people who used the service by telephone. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Before the inspection, we reviewed information we held about the service, including the notifications they had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us.
During the office visit, we spoke with the provider, the interim manager and two administration staff. We spoke with 15 people who used the service and some of their relatives, and 11 care staff by telephone. We also spoke with the commissioners of the service from the local authority.
We looked at the care and medicine records for eight people who used the service, five staff supervision records, and we reviewed the provider’s recruitment processes. We also looked at the training records for all the staff employed by the service and information on how the provider assessed and monitored the quality of the service, including reviewing audits and specific policies and procedures.
Updated
30 April 2015
We carried out this inspection by visiting the office on 19 January 2015 and it was unannounced. Between this date and 6 February 2015, we spoke with people who used the service and the staff by telephone.
The service provides care and support to people in their own homes, some of whom may be living with dementia, chronic conditions and physical disabilities. At the time of the inspection, 153 people were being supported by the service.
The service has a registered manager. 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 registered manager was not available at the time of the inspection and the provider’s care coordinator was the interim manager of the service.
There were risk assessments in place that gave guidance to the staff on how risks could be minimised. There were systems in place to safeguard people from the risk of possible harm, and medicines were managed safely.
The provider had effective recruitment processes in place and there were sufficient staff to support people safely. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities to seek people’s consent to care in line with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA).
The staff had supervision and support, and had been trained to meet people’s individual needs.
People were supported by caring and respectful staff. They were supported to access other health and social care services when required.
People’s needs had been assessed, and care plans took account of people’s individual needs, preferences, and choices. However, some of the people’s needs were not always responded to in a timely way.
The provider had a formal process for handling complaints and concerns. They encouraged feedback from people and acted on the comments received to improve the quality of the service.
The provider had quality monitoring processes in place, and these were used effectively to drive improvements.