Archived: Loga Care Limited

Updated 17 January 2017

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 24th and 25th November 2016 and was announced. The provider was given 24 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service. We needed to be sure that someone would be in. The inspection team consisted of four inspectors.

Prior to this inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service, including data about safeguarding and statutory notifications. Statutory notifications are information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

As part of our inspection with permission we observed care being provided in six peoples own homes. We spoke with six people who used the service, four relatives in the homes of people receiving a service, seven staff, the registered manager and the Regional Director. We reviewed a variety of documents which included the care plans for seventeen people, six staff files, training records, medicines records, quality assurance monitoring records and various other documentation relevant to the management of the home.

We last inspected the service on 2nd and 5th February 2015. At that inspection we found no breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Updated 17 January 2017

This inspection took place on 24th and 25th November 2016.

Loga Care Limited provides 24 hour live-in care for adults of all ages with a range of health care needs. Care staff live in people’s home to provide their care. People may be living with dementia or have a physical or learning disability. There were 104 people using the service at the time of the inspection.

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.

People’ s rights were not protected because the staff did not act in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Staff were not knowledgeable about how to support people to make decisions. Decisions were being made by people who did not have the authority to make those decisions, and where people had restrictions placed on them there was no evidence that this was done in their best interests

There were times where people were not being protected against risks and action had not been taken to prevent the potential of harm.

Staff did not always have the up to date training they needed to remain up to date with good practices. It is the provider’s policy to only provide update training in safeguarding, moving and handling and medicines administration on an on-going basis.

The provider did not always have effective systems in place to monitor the quality of care and support that people received. In the last year they had completed one audit in July 2016. The audit did not identify that people were not being protected against risks, or that people did not have decision specific mental capacity assessments in place.

People were protected against the risks of potential abuse as staff had the knowledge and confidence to identify safeguarding concerns.

The service followed safe recruitment practices.

Accidents and incidents were documented and measures were introduced to support people to remain as safe as possible.

People were supported by staff who had supervisions (one to one meetings) with their line manager, but this was not effectively recorded. Staff were supported on a regular basis by Field Supervisors.

Care plans contained details on people’s food preferences and people’s dietary requirements. Examples of meals that were nutritious, balanced and liked by people were in care records.

People’s care records showed people’s health care needs were met effectively and their GP was involved in their care.

People told us that staff were caring and they were happy with the care they received

People received care and support from staff that had got to know them well. Care records contained information about people’s personalities and life stories to help staff get to know them.

People and their relatives were given a choice of staff. People could read about staff member’s backgrounds and were encouraged to speak to staff members on the phone to help them to make a decision about who they wanted supporting them.

The relationships between staff and people receiving support demonstrated dignity and respect at all times.

Care, treatment and support plans were personalised and detailed. Records contained information on people’s health needs and practical tasks that they required support with and person centred information about people such as their wishes, preferences and backgrounds. Guidance for staff was very specific to people’s individual needs.

Assessments covered people’s needs and captured important person centred information.

People were able to choose what activities they took part in and suggest other activities they would like to do.

People’s concerns and complaints were encouraged, investigated and responded to and were used as an opportunity for learning or improvement. Six complains had been made in the last year. They had all been responded to and had learning points identified.

The service communicated well with people and their relatives.

The office and manager communicated with staff well. The provider emailed a weekly newsletter to staff and staff were able to phone for advice and support at any time.

The registered manager valued people’s and staffs feedback and acted on their suggestions. Surveys were carried out in February 2016. In response the provider had put action plans in place.

We found several breaches of regulations. You can see what action was taken at the end of the report.