Sugarman Health and Wellbeing - Watford

Sugarman Health and Wellbeing - Watford is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes in the community and in specialist housing. People who used the service received 12-hour support from care workers and some people had care workers live at their homes to provide 24-hour support. At the time of our inspection there were 43 people using the service.

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

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. Care workers deliver person-centred care and promote people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care workers help ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives

People were safe and protected from avoidable harm because care workers knew how to identify and report any concerns relating to the risk of abuse. Risks to people’s health, safety and well-being were assessed and measures developed to remove or reduce the risks. People were supported by care workers who had been safely recruited.

People’s medicines were managed safely. Staff received appropriate training and had their competency assessed to help ensure they were sufficiently skilled and knowledgeable to safely administer medicines. Staff had received training in infection control practices and personal protective equipment was provided for them. The management team took appropriate action following any incidents and learning was shared with staff.

Before care delivery started assessments were completed to make sure people’s needs could be met by Sugarman Health and Wellbeing. Care workers received training and support to enable them to carry out their roles effectively.

Care workers knew people well and were able to promptly identify when people’s needs changed, and they sought professional advice appropriately. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and care workers supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People and relatives praised the kind and caring nature of the care workers. People received consistent care from a small team of staff. People told us they would be confident to raise any concerns with the management team.

The management team was committed to providing a high standard of care to the people they supported and understood their responsibilities under the Duty of Candour. People, their relatives spoke highly of the management team and told us that they were always available and supportive.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 06 April 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to check 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 Care Act 2014.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.