Angelica Care Mid Sussex

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm.

This is the first assessment for this registered service. This key question has been rated good

This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. Staff listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice. Accidents and untoward incidents were investigated, used to inform any changes to the service, and the provider apologised when things went wrong. The provider shared details of actions they took following an incident involving medicines administration which resulted in a review of medicines processes and additional training and guidance for staff. Incidents were logged to enable any trends or patterns to be identified. Incidents were responded to appropriately and lessons learned were shared with the staffing team and the wider organisation.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care, in which safety was managed or monitored. They made sure there was continuity of care, including when people moved between different services.

The provider understood the importance of working with health and social care professionals to ensure people received appropriate support and ensured they worked with partners. A healthcare professional told us, “They are happy for a member of the community nursing team to be present for assessments, when we have a person with complex needs who has contacted Angelica Care Mid Sussex for support”.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to understand what being safe meant to them and the best way to achieve that. Staff concentrated on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm and neglect.

The provider shared concerns quickly and appropriately. People and family members all said they felt safe with the staff. One family member told us, they felt, “Very safe and instinctively know the staff will keep us safe.” Staff understood their responsibilities for safeguarding and where they had concerns, they had raised these appropriately meaning action could be taken if required. Staff members told us how they would pick up on potential signs of abuse and report them. One said, “We would send a supervisor alert to our office and we would also then call the office and make them aware.” Another told us if they had any concerns, “Sharing with the manager is the number one.” Managers and staff understood their responsibility to report concerns within the service and to external authorities where required.

The provider worked with people to understand and manage risks by thinking holistically. Staff provided care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them.

People were supported to manage risks associated with their health and equipment they required. Care plans included guidance for staff to support people with equipment to move and position. For example, hoists and stand aids. Risks were identified where people lived with various health conditions, for example, Diabetes and Dementia. Care plans guided staff on how to ensure people were as involved as possible to manage their own risks. Staff told us how they supported people to manage skin integrity risks. One staff member told us, “We know that the person might not be moving as much as they could or should be, we still try and encourage them to let us check, from time to time that all the pressure areas are okay”.

The provider detected and controlled potential risks in the care environment. They made sure equipment, facilities and technology supported the delivery of safe care. The provider ensured they assessed potential risks associated with staff visiting people's homes, for example potential access issues. Staff confirmed they could access relevant information prior to visiting a person's home and had received training to use any equipment in place.

The provider made sure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff, who received effective support, supervision and development. They worked together well to provide safe care that met people’s individual needs.

Staff told us how they were supported in their role. One staff member told us, “This is my first care job so I think I’ve been spoiled really because we have so much support.” People and family members confirmed staff stayed for the correct time, however, provided mixed feedback on occasions when staffing arrangements changed at short notice. One relative told us, “Sometimes there are rota changes, but it is not an issue, if there are rota changes, I get a call.” Whereas others expressed concern with communication when plans changed. The provider spoke of action they had taken in response to feedback from people and family members. The provider told us they had contingency measures in place should there be staff shortages which included ensuring senior staff were able to provide direct support if needed. They told us, “We don’t have any missed calls.”

The provider assessed and managed the risk of infection. They detected and controlled the risk of it spreading and shared concerns with appropriate agencies promptly.

People told us staff supported them to keep their homes clean. Staff received infection prevention and control training and had access to personal protective equipment (PPE). Consideration was given to people’s health conditions and staff were aware to wear additional PPE to support some people at their request and to take specific precautions. The registered manager told us they monitored staff practice through regular spot checks.

The provider made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. Staff involved people in planning, including when changes happened. The registered manager undertook audits to ensure staff administered medicines in line with national guidance and the prescriber’s instructions. Staff and training records confirmed staff had received medication administration training and had their competency assessed. Staff understood actions they should take if they had concerns with medicines administration and had acted appropriately when this had occurred. Staff told us about the various levels of support they provided with medicines following risk assessment. This included some people being independent, some requiring some prompting to others who needed significant support to manage medicines. One staff member told us, “We support [named person] with medication, because they wouldn’t be able to do that them self. They are quite happy for us to help, we just observe, administer and help them to take them.”