Coventry Crossroads

Updated 8 November 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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 comprehensive inspection was carried out by one inspector and an expert by experience. The expert by experience was a person who had personal experience of caring for someone who had similar care needs.

Inspection activity started on 11 September 2018 and ended on 11 October 2018. This included telephoning people and their relatives to get their views on the care they received. We visited the office location on 10 and 11 September 2018 to meet with the registered manager and nominated individual, speak with staff and review records. We told the provider we were coming so they could arrange to be there and arrange for care staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

The provider had completed a Provider Information Collection (PIC) before this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information in the PIC during our visit. We found the information reflected how the service operated.

Prior to the office visit we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included statutory notifications the service had sent us and the ‘share your experience’ information we had received. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. ‘Share your experience’ is information that people who use the service/ relatives/members of the public or social care professionals want to tell us about. These can be concerns or compliments. We also contacted the local authority who arranged placements with the service. Information received was considered as part of our inspection planning.

The provider sent a list of people who used the service to us; this was so we could contact people by phone to ask them their views of the service. We spoke with twelve people, and five relatives of people who used the service. We used this information to help us make a judgement about the service.

During our inspection visit we spoke with the registered manager, the providers nominated individual and the Chief Executive Officer, about their management of the service. We spoke with a community liaison officer, three care co-ordinators and three care staff about their roles, and what it was like to work for Coventry Crossroads.

We reviewed four people’s care records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We looked at three staff recruitment files, staff training records and records associated with the provider's quality checking systems.

Updated 8 November 2018

Coventry Crossroads is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service supported 75 people with personal care and employed 45 care staff.

The office visit of this inspection took place on 10 and 11 October 2018 and was announced.

At our last comprehensive inspection of the service in December 2015 we rated the service as Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

A requirement of the provider’s registration is that they have a registered manager. There was a registered manager in post. 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 in post at our last inspection had recently retired. They also had been the provider’s nominated individual for the service and the organisations Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The provider had appointed a nominated individual and a new manager, who was registered with us in August 2018. A new CEO had been appointed for the organisation.

People received care which protected them from avoidable harm and abuse. Staff understood people’s needs and knew how to protect them from the risk of abuse. Risks to people’s safety were identified and assessments were in place to manage identified risks. Where people required support to take prescribed medicines, staff had received training to assist people safely.

There were enough skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of people who used the service. People had different experiences of the consistency of care staff and their call times. Some people received care around the time expected from staff they knew well. Others did not know which staff would be calling, and call times could be earlier or later than expected. The management team had identified consistency of calls to people needed improvement and action had been taken to improve this. Recruitment checks were completed on new staff to ensure they were suitable to support people who used the service.

The managers understood their responsibilities in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Staff asked for people’s consent before they provided care and people were involved in making decisions about how they wanted their care provided.

People received care from staff who they considered to be kind and caring, and who stayed long enough to provide the care and support people required. Staff promoted people’s privacy and dignity. People received care and support which was individual to them.

Support plans were personalised and provided guidance for staff about how to support each person in the way they preferred. People’s care and support needs were kept under review and staff responded when there were changes in these needs. Where required, people were supported to have sufficient to eat and drink and remain in good health.

The service continued to be well led. Staff said they received good support from the management team who were always available to give advice. Managers and staff told us there was good team work and that staff worked well together. The provider had effective and responsive processes for assessing and monitoring the quality of the service provided.