Home First - Stafford

Updated 8 January 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Home First Stafford is a short term reablement service for people living in Stafford. The service supports adults with health and social needs to maximise or regain their independence. At the time of inspection, the service was supporting 38 people living in their own homes.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ 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.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with nine people who used the service and seven relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with three members of staff including support workers and the registered manager and received feedback via email from three support workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at the service action plan which was in working progress.

Updated 8 January 2021

About the service

Home First – Stafford is a short-term enablement service for people living in the Stafford area. The service supports adults with health and social needs to maximise or regain their independence. At the time of our inspection, the service was supporting 38 people living in their own homes.

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

People felt safe and were protected from the risk of harm by staff who understood their responsibilities to identify and report any signs of potential abuse.

People were supported by staff who had the skills and knowledge to provide effective support. There were enough staff available to provide care which met people’s needs. Medicines were managed safely, and people were protected from the risk of infections as staff followed the additional guidance in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quality assurance systems were in place to monitor the service to ensure lessons were learnt when things went wrong. There was a positive culture within the service. Complaints were acted on and improvements made.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities and was open and reflective during the inspection.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 07 August 2019) and there was a breach of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

Our intelligence and monitoring systems highlighted to us that the service was high risk. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for this service remains requires improvement.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Home First – Stafford on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.