Cera - King's Lynn

Updated 25 May 2019

The inspection:

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 activity began on 8 April with telephone calls to people using the service, a site visit was carried out on 30 April and inspection activity completed on 3 May 2019.

Inspection team:

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors, an assistant inspector and three experts by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type:

The service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults.

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.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 72 hours’ notice of the inspection because the manager may be out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

Before the inspection we looked at all the information that we had about the service. This included information from statutory notifications. Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We reviewed information that the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). 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 also reviewed information from professionals working with the service, that we contacted for their views.

During the inspection we:

Spoke with the registered manager, the administrator, two care co ordinators and seven support staff and we received feedback by email from eight staff.

We spoke with 12 people who used the service and four relatives.

We reviewed 34 people’s care records and looked at the medicine administration records (MAR) and supporting documents for six people.

We also looked at records relating to the governance and management of the service.

Updated 25 May 2019

About the service: Mears Care Kings Lynn is a domiciliary care agency that was providing personal care to 254 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People felt safe with care staff and care staff understood how to safeguard people from harm.

There was guidance for staff on how to manage risks associated with people’s care and support.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. Care visits were occasionally late if they had to be covered because of staff absence. Any issues with staff attending visits late were addressed to improve attendance for the future.

Medicines systems were organised, and people were receiving their medicines when they should.

Staff were provided with equipment such as gloves and aprons and understood how to prevent and control the spread of infection.

Accidents and incidents were monitored and reviewed so that action could be taken to make improvements for the future.

People’s care needs were holistically assessed and included information about health needs, eating and drinking and mobility.

Staff received the training they needed to carry out their role.

The service worked well with other professionals to improve the health and wellbeing of people using the service.

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.

People told us that staff were kind and caring and respected their privacy and dignity.

The service responded to people’s needs and supported people to maintain their independence.

There was a robust complaints procedure in place.

The service was well run, managers were respected and there were systems in place to monitor the quality of care.

There was an open and honest culture where people felt listened to. Feedback from people and staff was used to improve the service for the future.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection this service was rated good. (Report published 19 October 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our reinspection schedule for those services rating requires improvement.

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