Archived: Helping Hands St Albans

Updated 8 July 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This was to check the safety and overall management of the service due to information of concern that had been received by the Care Quality Commission.

This inspection was carried out on the 26 May 2016 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service and requested feedback from local authority commissioning teams and other partner agencies who had knowledge of the service.

During the inspection we spoke with four people who used the service, two relatives and four staff members. We also spoke with a care coordinator and the manager of the service. We looked at care records relating to three people who used the service, reviewed three staff recruitment files along with training records. We looked at other documentation relating to the safety and welfare of people who used the service and quality monitoring processes and audits. We obtained feedback from the local authority and commissioning teams.

Updated 8 July 2016

We carried out an unannounced focused inspection of this service on 28 May 2016 in response to concerns received at the Care Quality Commission in relation to people’s safety and the overall management of the service. We undertook this inspection to check if people were being kept safe, risk assessments were being completed and reviewed and staff knew how to keep people safe. This report only covers our findings in relation to these areas. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Helping Hands St Albans on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

At the previous inspection on 30 October 2015 we found that the provider was meeting the regulations the Health and Social care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. However at this inspection we found Improvements were required in the two key areas we assessed. We also found breaches in two of the regulations.

Helping Hands St Albans provides personal care and support to up to 80 people living in their own homes including daily visits and a live in service.

There was a new manager in post who was not currently registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

We found that there were some processes in place and risks to people’s safety and well-being had been assessed and were kept under annual review. However staff had not always followed the appropriate guidance provided and had undertaken tasks for which they had not been trained and this had caused harm to a person who used the service. We found that actions had been put in place to address the issues of concern and the staff concerned were not working at the service at the time of our inspection. The manager was being supported by the provider and was also working with the local authority to identify priorities and to make improvements to the safety of people who used the service. This included undertaking observed practice, spot checks and individual supervisions to review staff training and development needs. We found that some actions had been taken to start addressing these concerns and mitigate the immediate risks to people but further work was needed to help ensure people’s safety and well-being was maintained.