12 and 13 November 2015
During a routine inspection
This announced domiciliary care inspection took place over two days on 12 and13 November 2015.
Gemini Xtra Care is a family run domiciliary care agency that currently provides care and support to a very small number of older people that live at home in Northampton.
A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (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.
People were supported in their own homes by staff that were able to meet people’s needs safely. There were sufficient numbers of staff employed to meet people’s assessed needs. Some improvements were needed, however, regarding the registered manager ensuring that records held at the office relating to staff recruitment and quality assurance were consistently fit for purpose. For example, some staff files were missing an application form, and staff supervision records had not always been kept. The registered manager had not always documented the ‘spot checks’ they verbally confirmed they had done to check that staff were doing their job effectively. Although there were copies of training staff had undertaken there was an incomplete training ‘overview’ record maintained or readily available in the office. The registered manager was making these improvements when we inspected but work was still to be done.
People felt safe receiving care and support from the agency staff scheduled to provide their service. The registered manager and staff understood the need to protect people from harm and abuse and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns. Staffing levels ensured that people received the support they required at the times they needed.
People’s care plans reflected their needs and choices about how they preferred their care and support to be provided. People were encouraged to be involved in the development and review of their care plan.
People were treated with dignity and their right to make choices about how they preferred their care to be provided was respected. Staff were caring, friendly, and responsive to people’s changing needs.
People received support from staff that were able to demonstrate that they understood what was required of them to provide people with the care they needed. People had been kept informed in a timely way whenever staff were unavoidably delayed, or when another staff had to be substituted at short notice.
People’s rights were protected. People knew how to raise concerns and complaints with the registered manager and were encouraged to do so if they were unhappy with any aspect of the service they received. The quality of the service provided was regularly reviewed by a registered manager that was very much ‘hands on’ with regard to the day-to-day provision of care.