Archived: Creative Care Services Ltd

Updated 11 April 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: The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type: Creative Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing community support and personal care to people living in their own homes. The service specialises in supporting people mental health and/or learning difficulties.

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. At the time of the inspection the registered manager was absent from the service for personal reasons. Appropriate action had been taken to notify the commission of their absence and measures were in place to manage and support the service until they returned.

Notice of inspection: We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the management team are often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be available to speak with us.

The inspection site visit activity started on 12 February 2019 and ended on 14 February 2019. We visited the office location on 12 February to see the management team; and to review care records and policies and procedures and made telephone calls to speak with care staff and relatives on the 14 February.

What we did:

Before the inspection, we reviewed information received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as serious injury, events that stop the service running and safeguarding alerts. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give key information about the service, including what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection, we spoke with two relatives to ask about their experience of the care provided. Some people using the service could not easily give their views and opinions about care, therefore we spoke with their relatives and support workers. We spoke with five members of staff including the care manager, office manager and care workers. We reviewed a range of records. This included two people's care records and associated documents and documents relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance monitoring systems to see how the service recorded, analysed and developed action plans to improve the service.

Updated 11 April 2019

About the service: Creative Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes and supports people to access the community and remain as independent as possible. The service specialises in supporting people with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection the service supported 13 people, two of whom received the regulated activity of personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

Since the last inspector the provider had introduced a system to ensure care plans were regularly reviewed. When reviewing care delivery staff actively engaged people and their relatives in the process to ensure it was meeting their needs.

Staff were very kind and caring. People enjoyed spending time with staff and meaningful relationships had developed between staff, people and their relatives.

Staff empowered people to remain as independent as possible and were passionate about enabling people to have maximum choice and control over all aspects of their lives.

Staff understood how to recognise and protect people from abuse. Systems were in place to ensure people received their medication safely. Risks to people’s everyday lives had been assessed. Care plans provided information for staff about how to support people in accordance with their preferences and wishes. Staff understood their responsibilities to prevent the spread of infection whilst working in and between people's homes.

The registered manager supported staff to complete a variety of training sessions. This ensured they had the necessary skills to meet the needs of people. Staff supported people in line with the legislation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and we saw no unnecessarily restrictive practices in place.

Incidents and accidents were monitored to inform practice and make improvements to the service. Concerns and complaints were effectively responded to and where appropriate action was taken to resolve the situation.

People were supported to access healthcare services when they needed to. Staff described positive working relationships with healthcare professionals.

Staff respected people's life histories, diversity and personal preferences when delivering care. People and their relatives had confidence in the staff and were pleased with the care they received. The provider actively sought feedback from people using the service and their relatives. This information was used to develop and improve service delivery.

Staff were supported by a well-established management team who had a clear vision for the service, placing the needs of people using the service at its core. This ethos was firmly embedded into the culture of the service and was emulated by staff, who took pride in their work and endorsed the values of the service.

Rating at last inspection: Good (published 24/06/2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. At the last inspection the service was given an overall rating of good but the domain of well-led was rated as requires improvement. This was because the quality assurance systems in place were not effective. During this inspection we looked to see whether the provider had made the required improvements to this area and found effective systems were now in place.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.