Archived: Bella Care Limited

We received an action plan from the service on 19 April 2013 which told us how the provider was going to make the necessary improvements in respect of staffing and supporting workers.

On this inspection we spoke with four people who used the service, six members of staff and three relatives. We found that improvements had been made in respect of sufficient numbers of appropriately skilled staff. We spoke with one person who told us that they had received support from Bella Care Limited for five years. They said "staff are properly trained". The manager told us that staffing levels were based upon the needs of people who used the service. We looked at rotas and found that there were sufficient staffing levels in place.

We looked at four staff files and viewed training records for 12 members of staff. Records showed that care staff had received supervision. We spoke with the senior care worker who told us that unannounced spot checks took place to monitor and assess staff competence. Staff we spoke with confirmed this. They told us that they had received appropriate training.

People told us that they had been assessed by the agency prior to receiving a service. A service user's relative told us "the care is very good, she has a care plan and this explains the help she receives." People who used the service told us they felt safe using the service. A service user told us "I've never had any concerns about any of my carers, they're a good bunch."

During our inspection we found that whilst staff had day to day support from the manager and the on-call via the telephone or by calling into the office, they were not receiving regular supervision or annual appraisals. We also found that staff had not had the opportunity to attend team meetings in the past 12 months. Staff at the agency told us that a senior care worker had been absent due to sickness for three weeks, and that the manager had been covering both the office and on-call service as a result. We found that staff were not being offered the opportunity to gain relevant qualifications due to a lack of available funding.