West Heanton - Supported Living & Domiciliary Agency

Updated 10 April 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection site visit took place on 7 February 2018 and was announced. We gave the agency 48 hours ‘notice of the inspection visit because the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure they would be in. We visited the office to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. Inspection site visit activity started on 7 February 2018 and ended on 23 March 2018, following calls to people who used the service.

This was a routine comprehensive inspection carried out by one adult social care inspector.

We visited two people in their own homes and spoke with them about their experience of receiving care and support. We met and spoke with the registered manager and five care workers. Following the inspection site visit, a second inspector rang and spoke with five people receiving a service on 23 March 2018. We also contacted two health and social care professionals and received a response from one of them.

We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed other information we held about the service. This included previous inspection reports, safeguarding alerts and statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

We reviewed information about people's care and how the service was managed. These included: two people's care files and medicine records; two staff files which included recruitment records of the last two staff to be appointed; staff rotas; staff induction, training and supervision records; quality monitoring systems such as audits, spot checks and competency checks; complaints and compliments; incident and accident reporting; minutes of meetings and the most recent quality questionnaire returned.

Updated 10 April 2018

West Heanton supported living and domiciliary agency provides care and support to people in their own homes. It also provides care and support to people living in flats on the site of West Heanton Residential Care Home. These people have their own tenancy agreements as part of a supported living package. We only inspected the care and support and not the accommodation.

Rating at last inspection

At our last inspection completed in October 2015 we rated the service as good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection. This inspection was completed on 7 February 2018 and 23 March 2018.

Why the service is rated as Good.

There was registered manager in post who was also the registered manager of West Heanton Residential Home. 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.

Care and support was well planned, with risks clearly identified. People were supported in the least restrictive way; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff had received training on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). They ensured people were asked for their consent before they carried out any care or support.

The registered manager promoted strong values and a person centred culture. The staff and people said the management team had an open and inclusive approach. Good systems had been used to review the quality of care and gain people’s views to improve things. People said their views and concerns were listened to. One person said “I would have no hesitation to call them, if I needed to, but the service is second to none. Everything is sorted. The girls will always help with anything.”

People were protected from harm because there was a robust recruitment processes. Staff knew who to report concerns regarding abuse.

Care workers had been trained to give people their medicines safely and ensured medicine administration records were kept up to date. Care workers supported people to eat a nutritious diet with food and drinks of their choice.

People were treated with kindness, respect and compassion. Staff had developed strong bonds and good relationships with people and understood what was important to them. One person said “Our girl who visits is like a family friend to us. It’s important to have that trust and I do trust her 100 percent.”

Further information is in the detailed findings below