St Anne's Community Services - Leeds DCA

St Anne's Community Services - Leeds DCA is a domiciliary care agency providing support and personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides care to people with a learning disability or autistic people. At the time of the inspection, the provider told us 45 people were receiving support with personal care from the service.

People's experience of using this service and what we found

Right Culture:

The providers quality assurance and governance systems in place to assess, monitor, and improve the quality and safety of the services provided had failed to identify the issues we found during this inspection.

Right Support:

Medicines were not always managed safely. Documentation relating to covert medicines was not in place. Risk assessments did not always include detailed information about people’s needs.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care:

Staffing levels were sufficient to meet people's needs. Systems were in place to safeguard people from the risk of abuse and people told us they felt safe with the staff who supported them. Incidents and accidents were reported, investigated and measures taken to mitigate future occurrences. However, we did identify 5 incidents which were not reported to CQC.

People and their relatives knew how to complain and felt comfortable raising concerns with the provider. People and their relatives told us they were happy with the support they received. Staff felt supported by the management team and were provided with regular supervisions.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 23 May 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified a breach in relation to the management oversight. We have made a recommendation about medicines.

Please see what action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

St Anne’s Community Services Leeds – DCA provides personal care to people living in their own homes; providing assistance and support to people to help them maintain and improve their independence. The service predominantly provides care and support to people who have a learning disability. At the time of this inspection, the service was providing support to 29 people.

At the last inspection, the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of Good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

The service had two registered managers in post. They shared this role. 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.

Why the service is rated good:

People told us they felt safe. People continued to receive care which protected them from avoidable harm and abuse. Staff had received appropriate safeguarding training and risk assessments had been developed when needed to reduce the risk of harm occurring. People were protected by safe recruitment procedures which helped to make sure only staff suitable to work with vulnerable people were employed. Systems for managing medicines safely were overall, effective. The registered managers responded swiftly to some issues we identified with the records of medicines support to ensure safe medicines management. There were systems in place to make sure managers and staff learnt from any accidents and incidents. There were enough staff to support people safely. Staff promoted good infection prevention and control practices.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities to seek people's consent prior to care and support being provided. Where needed, people were supported to maintain a balanced diet. People’s health needs were met well. All staff had completed a range of training and new staff completed the Care Certificate (a nationally recognised training course for staff new to care).

People spoke positively about the caring nature of staff and the support they received. People told us they were treated very well. We saw people were supported by kind and attentive staff. Staff respected people's privacy, treated them with dignity and encouraged them to be as independent as they could be. Some people’s relatives said there were occasions when they did not always get staff they knew well to provide the care for their family member. We were told this was improving and staff rotas were provided in advance most of the time.

Care records were person-centred and contained all relevant information to enable staff to provide personalised care and support. Support plans and risk assessments were updated as people’s needs changed to ensure staff were fully aware of people’s needs. People were supported to spend their time how they wanted to and were encouraged to maintain their social interests within the local community. People knew how to raise concerns if they were unhappy.

The provider had systems in place that continued to be effective in assessing and monitoring the quality of the service provided. People, staff and relatives spoke positively about the management team. The management team showed a commitment to running a well- led service for the benefit of the people who used the service. Feedback was obtained from people who used the service, their relatives and representatives. Action had been taken where required.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

The service had systems in place which ensured that people's rights and wishes were respected. People who used the service and their relatives were involved in the care provided by the service. One person told us, 'I've got a plan. The manager discussed it with me when I first started using the service. They keep adding bits to it because I need more help now than I did then. I have a meeting with them every year to see if I need more help.'

Another person told us, 'I've seen a big improvement in my son since they have been coming, they are all brilliant, I'm really pleased with them, they are like part of our family.'

The service had policies and procedures in place to reduce the risk of infection which were followed by staff.

Staff received regular supervision and training to make sure they had the skills, support and qualifications needed to provide care to people.

The service had a system in place to monitor and audit the service provided.