Archived: Nationwide Care Services Limited (Nottingham)

Updated 12 September 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.

We carried out visits to the service on 12 and 31 May 2016, this was an announced inspection. We gave 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure that the registered provider would be available. The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed information we held about the service. This included information received and statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

During our inspection we spoke with five people who used the service, one relative, three members of care staff, two seniors and the registered manager. We looked at the care plans of five people who used the service and any associated daily records, such as the daily log and medicine administration records. We looked at four staff files, as well as a range of records relating to the running of the service, such as quality audits and training records.

Updated 12 September 2016

We carried out an announced inspection of the service on the 12 and 31 May 2016. Nationwide Care Services is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care and support to people in their own home across the UK. At the time of the inspection there were 66 numbers of people using the service.

There was a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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.

People felt safe and were supported by staff who knew how to keep them safe and understood their responsibilities to protect people from the risk of abuse. Risks to people’s health and safety were managed, but plans in place did not always identify or reduce the risk to people’s safety. There were enough staff at the time of our visit to meet people’s care needs and staff were recruited safely. People received the level of support they required to safely manage their medicines.

People were supported by staff who received appropriate induction, training, supervision and a yearly appraisal. Staff felt fully supported by management. People’s rights were protected under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People received the assistance they required to have enough to eat and drink. External professionals were involved in people’s care as appropriate.

People were treated with kindness and compassion and spoke complimentary of the staff. People reported positive and caring relationships had been developed between themselves and the staff. People felt able to contribute to decisions about their care and were involved in the planning and reviewing of their care and how they wanted their care delivered. People were treated with dignity and respect by staff who understood the importance of this.

People received the care they needed and staff were aware of the support each person required. Care records were written in a way that focused on people’s wishes and respected their views that provided information for staff so people could receive relevant care. However, they were not written in a person centred way. A complaints process was in place, and people felt able to make a complaint and felt staff would respond in a timely manner.

The service promoted a positive culture that was transparent and open. People felt the service was well run. Staff felt supported by the management. All staff felt the registered manager was approachable and listened to their views or concerns. People were encouraged to share their experience about the service and feedback on these experiences. There were a number of quality assurance processes in place that regularly assessed the quality and effectiveness of the support provided.

We identified one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Registration) Regulations 2009. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.