Versita Care Ltd

Updated 10 June 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in two ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

There was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service short notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 7 April 2022 and ended on 11 May 2022. We visited the location’s office on 14 April 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed all information we had received about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited one of the supported living houses and met briefly with people in the lounge. We saw how staff interacted with them in their everyday activities. We spoke with one relative of a person using the service, three staff, the registered manager and another member of the management team. We received written feedback from two health and social care professionals. We looked at a range of records, including recruitment files for five staff and care records.

Updated 10 June 2022

Versita Care Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in two ‘supported living’ settings. People had their own tenancy in a shared house on a housing estate. At the time of our inspection there were five people using the service. They had their own bedrooms and shared the lounge, kitchen and bathrooms.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The provider did not have a robust policy in place to ensure new staff were recruited following the necessary checks. The provider had not notified us of notifiable events which they needed to under the legislation. Risk assessments were in place and action taken to reduce risks. However, we noted two specific risks had been identified but not enough information was available to mitigate the risks. The provider was not following current government guidance regarding the use of personal protective equipment and COVID-19 testing.

The registered manager responded to the issues we found straight away and made changes. For example, after we highlighted current government guidance, they told us staff had started to wear face masks again.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

People’s needs were assessed to ensure the provider can meet people’s needs before they agreed to provide care and support. The provider ensured there were enough staff to meet people’s assessed needs.

The provider had a training programme in place which included training specific to people’s needs.

The provider and staff worked with other agencies to ensure people’s needs were supported.

People were supported to access general and specialised health care professionals. People were supported with taking their medicines by staff who had received medicines training.

People were supported by staff who treated them with kindness. Staff encouraged people to be involved in making decisions about their care. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity.

People had care plans in place which were individual and personalised to them. Care plans included people’s wishes about aspects of their daily lives and how they wished to be supported. People were supported to undertake their own interests and activities. People were supported to prepare and cook their own meals.

The provider had a complaints procedure in place and systems for continuous learning and improving care.

The registered manager promoted a positive working culture which was person centred and involved people and their relatives, where appropriate, in all aspects of their care. The registered manager attended and contributed to multi-disciplinary meetings which were held to discuss people’s individual needs and to consider how their needs were best met.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This service was registered with us on 22 August 2017 and this is the first inspection. The service did not start providing care and support for some time.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook this comprehensive inspection so we could give this newly registered service a rating.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach in relation to safety checks on new staff at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.