24 March 2016
During a routine inspection
The registered manager was present throughout the inspection and was cooperative throughout the inspection process. 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.
Interserve Healthcare was first registered with the Care quality Commission on 26 January 2015. This was the services first inspection since its registration.
Interserve Healthcare delivers specialist healthcare services to people in their own homes. Care services are delivered to adults, children and young people with varying health issues such as spinal injuries, acquired brain injuries, learning disabilities and mental health requirements.
At the time of our inspection the service was delivering approximately 1500 hours of care per week to 29 people using 52 members of staff.
The service had procedures in place for dealing with allegations of abuse.
Staff were able to describe to us what constituted abuse and the action they would take to escalate concerns. Staff members spoken with said they would not hesitate to report any concerns they had about care practices.
We asked staff we spoke with if they felt confident with the process of matching people to carers and if they were given the training and support necessary to provide care and cover care packages. They all told us they did have the correct training, support and information to make this judgement.
We asked people and relatives if they were happy with the competence of staff and if they felt they were well trained given the complexity of the care given.
We saw good evidence of staff training within the personnel files we reviewed, this included bespoke training for specialist areas of need.
People we spoke with told us they were happy with the care they received from the service and that the approach of staff was caring and compassionate.
We contacted other professionals involved with the service, including the local health authority, which commissions the majority of the agency’s services, and asked them about their experiences of dealing with managers and staff at Interserve. The responses we received were positive regarding the care people received and how managers and office staff dealt with enquiries and issues.
People we spoke with told us they knew how to raise issues or make complaints. They also told us they felt confident that any issues raised would be listened to and addressed although no-one we spoke with had made a formal complaint some had raised issues.
The content of each person’s care plan we reviewed contained good and detailed information, was specific to the person receiving care and was up to date. They were easy to follow and staff we spoke with told us that they found plans easy to navigate and contained all the information they needed in order to provide the care each person needed.
People we spoke with talked positively about the service they received. People spoke positively about the management of the service and the communication within the service via the carers that visited them and when they spoke with office based staff.
We saw a wide range of policies and procedures in place which provided staff with clear information about current health and social care legislation and good practice guidelines.