Nursefinders

Nursefinders is a staffing agency which also offers a domiciliary care service to support to people living in their own homes. The service’s policy is to provide longer care visits with a minimum visit time of six hours. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only regulates where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

When this inspection was announced the service was providing support to two people, one of whom received person care. However, when we inspected Nursefinders on 13 January 2020 the service was not being commissioned to providing any packages of support which included personal care. The service had received an enquiry to provide over-night support including personal care for another person and was on the day of our inspection in the process of developing a staff rota to meet this request. As Nursefinders was not providing regulated activity on the day of our inspection we are not able to provide a rating for the service.

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

There were systems in place to ensure people were protected from all forms of abuse and discrimination. Staff had received safeguarding training and had access to guidance on how to report any concerns to the local authority.

Risks in relation to people’s care need and their home environment had been appropriately assessed and staff had received training on how to meet people’s support needs if they became upset or anxious.

The service’s recruitment practices were not entirely robust as necessary pre-employment checks had not been consistently completed. We have made a recommendation in relation to this issue.

The service only recruited staff with previous experience in the care sector. All staff received regular training updates to ensure they had the skills necessary to meet people’s support needs. Regular supervision was provided and there was an on-call system to enable staff to access guidance and support when the office was closed.

The service had systems in place to ensure people were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and that care was provided in the least restrictive way possible.

The service policies and procedures were designed to ensure people privacy and dignity was respected. All personal information was stored securely when not in use.

Care plans had been developed from information gathered during the assessment process and these documents included clear guidance for staff on how to meet people support needs.

The service had systems in place to gather feedback from people and staff and where complaints were received these had been investigated.

The roles and responsibilities of the registered manager and office-based staff were clearly defined and well understood. There were appropriate quality assurance system in place to monitor the service’s performance.

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

Rating at the last inspection

This service was last inspected prior to our current methodology for rating services. (Published 13 April 2013)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection of the service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service and the amount of regulated activities it provides. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

We found people were given appropriate information and were involved in making decisions about their care and treatment. They said they were well cared for. One person said, "The staff are very good, my relative's carer is fantastic, they are like part of the family."

All people we spoke with including staff said communication was very good within the agency. Comments from staff included:" There is very good communication, we receive enough information about people's care and support needs." Another person said;' They let you know if there is going to be any change in carer."

Staff received professional development. Staff we spoke with said they had opportunities for training and to help them understand about any specialist care needs.Two staff members said;" It is a very good agency to work for."

We saw the provider had systems in place to gather feedback from people, who used the service, and to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service people received.