Archived: Mofor Solutions Ltd

Updated 8 February 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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 inspection took place over three days in December 2015 and was announced and was undertaken by one inspector. The provider was given 4 hours’ notice of the inspection as we needed to be sure that when we inspected the manager was in the agency office. We do this because in some community based domiciliary care agencies the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or, in some smaller agencies, providing care.

Before our inspection, we reviewed information we held about the provider including, for example, statutory notifications that they had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We contacted the health and social care commissioners who help place and monitor the care of people using the service that have information about the quality of the service.

During this inspection we visited the agency office. We met and spoke with seven care staff, including the registered manager and branch manager. We reviewed the care records of two people who used the service. We looked at three records in relation to staff recruitment and training, as well as records related to the quality monitoring of the service.

We took into account people’s experience of receiving care by listening to what they had to say.

We visited one household with people’s prior agreement. With people’s permission, we looked at the care records maintained by the care staff that were kept in people’s own homes. We also telephoned the relatives of four people to ask them about their family member’s experience of using the service.

We also looked at other information related to the running of and the quality of the service. This included quality assurance audits, training information for care staff, and the arrangements for managing complaints.

Updated 8 February 2016

This announced inspection took place on 10 11 & 17 December 2015. The service provides domiciliary care and support to adults that live at home throughout Northamptonshire.

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 had delegated the day to day running of the agency to a branch manager.

There were some systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service however these systems required strengthening to ensure any concerns or areas for improvement were identified and acted upon.

People felt safe in the house and relatives said that they had no concerns. Staff understood the need to protect people from harm and abuse and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns.

When there were unforeseen changes in staffing levels the branch manager reviewed the workload so that people received the support they required at the times they needed it. The recruitment practices were thorough and protected people from being cared for by staff that were unsuitable to work at the service.

Care records provided information to staff about action to be taken to minimise any risks whilst allowing people to be as independent as possible.

Care plans were in place detailing how people wished to be supported and where possible people or their family members were involved in making decisions about their support.

People were prompted to take their medicines as prescribed. People were supported to maintain good health as staff had the knowledge and skills to support them and when there were concerns these were raised with family members or healthcare services when needed.

Where possible people were actively involved in decision about their care and support needs There were formal systems in place to assess people’s capacity for decision making under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

Staff developed good relationships with the people they supported. Staff were aware of the importance of managing complaints promptly and in line with the provider’s policy.

The branch manager was visible and accessible and staff and people had confidence in the way the service was run. The branch manager was supported by the registered manager.