Archived: Mears Care - Burton on Trent

The service provides care and domiciliary support for older people and people with a learning disability who live in their own home in and around Burton upon Trent.

There was a registered manager in the service. 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’s consent was sought before staff provided care and support. However, some people did not have capacity to make certain decisions. It was not clear how some decisions had been made and whether people had the necessary authorisations to make decisions on behalf of others. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

People and their relatives felt safe when they received care. Risk assessments identified action to be taken to minimise the chance of harm occurring to people and staff understood this. People knew how to report concerns and staff knew how to keep people safe and supported people to understand risks. Checks were carried out prior to staff starting work to ensure their suitability to work with people.

People received an agreed level of staff support at a time they wanted it. People were happy with how the staff supported them. People had a regular team of staff who had the skills to meet their needs. People knew who was providing their support in advance and the provider was flexible and responsive to changes in people’s needs. People received their medicine and were supported to apply any cream they needed.

People chose how support was provided and they were involved in the review of their care. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and plan on-going improvements. Staff knew people well and supported them to manage their health care.

People were positive about the way staff treated them and staff were kind and compassionate. Staff listened to people’s views and people knew how to make a complaint or raise concerns.

The provider had systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of care and encouraged people and their relatives to give their feedback and used this to drive improvements.

The support was provided by skilled staff who knew the needs of people well and what to do to assist them. One person told us, 'The carers are looking after the welfare of my wife and they have put a smile on her face.' People said they had no concerns about the service and knew how to raise concerns should they need to.

The staff received training that was appropriate for their individual needs and provided them with the information they needed to care for the people living in their own home.

There were systems were in place to identify and report any concerns about people's safety. People told us they felt safe and one person said, 'My mother is safe with the carers, her welfare is well looked after and I would give them eleven out of ten.'

Quality monitoring systems were in place whereby the quality of the care was reviewed and monitored, and information was used to influence the development of the service.