A2L Care Services

Updated 1 November 2018

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 on 1 and 3 October 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be at the office to support us with the inspection. We visited the office location on 1 October 2018 and we made phone calls to people using the service, relatives and the staff on 3 October 2018.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

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 looked at the PIR prior to our visit and took this into account when we made judgements in this report. We also reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications. These detail events which happened at the service that the provider is required to tell us about. We also contacted the Local Authority for any information they held on the service.

We spoke with three people who used the service and two relatives. In addition, we also had discussions with the registered manager who was also the registered provider and three care and support staff. We reviewed two people’s care records to ensure they were reflective of their needs, two staff files, and other documents related to the management of the service such as training records and quality audits.

Updated 1 November 2018

This inspection took place on 1 and 3 October 2018. This was the first inspection of the service since its registration with the Care Quality Commission on 25 September 2017.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses. It provides a service to older adults, including those living with dementia, and people with mental health needs, a physical disability and younger adults.

A2L Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. Care services are designed to support people with their day-to-day living activities, allowing them to remain as independent as possible in their own home. Services provided include support with personal care, meal preparation and help with medication. At the time of our inspection, four people were using the service, all of which were receiving personal care.

The service had a registered manager. 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. Staff had been provided with safeguarding training to enable them to recognise signs and symptoms of abuse and how to report them. There were risk management plans in place to protect and promote people’s safety. Staffing numbers were appropriate to keep people safe. There were safe recruitment practices in place and these were being followed to ensure staff who were employed were suitable for their role. People’s medicines were managed safely and in line with best practice guidelines.

Systems were in place to ensure that people were protected by the prevention and control of infection. There were arrangements in place for the service to make sure that action was taken and lessons learned when things went wrong, to improve safety across the service

People’s needs and choices were assessed and their care provided in line with best practice that met their diverse needs. Staff received an induction process when they first commenced work at the service and received on-going training to ensure they could provide care based on current practice when supporting people.

People received enough to eat and drink and staff gave support when required. People were supported to use and access a wide variety of other services and social care professionals. The staff had a good knowledge of other services available to people and we saw these had been involved with supporting people using the service. People were supported to access health appointments when required, to make sure they received continuing healthcare to meet their needs.

People's consent was gained before any care was provided. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice. Staff provided care and support in a caring and meaningful way. People were given choices about their day to day routines and about how they wanted their care to be delivered. People’s privacy and dignity was maintained at all times.

People were listened to, their views were acknowledged and acted upon and care and support was delivered in the way that people chose and preferred. Records showed that people and their relatives were involved in the care planning process. There was a complaints procedure in place to enable people to raise complaints about the service.

People, relatives and staff were encouraged to provide feedback about the service and it was used to drive improvement. Staff felt well-supported and received supervision that gave them an opportunity to share ideas, and exchange information.