Archived: Independent Healthcare Services

The service had a registered provider in place. A registered provider is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage and provide the service. 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.

This announced comprehensive inspection was undertaken on 10 February 2016.

Staff were only employed after the provider carried out satisfactory pre-employment checks. Staff were trained and well supported by the provider There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people’s assessed needs.

Systems were in place to ensure people’s safety was effectively managed. Staff were aware of the procedures for reporting concerns and took action to reduce the risk of people experiencing harm.

People’s health and personal needs were effectively met. Systems were in place to safely support people with the management of their medicines. People received their prescribed medicines appropriately.

The provider was acting in accordance with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and staff had received training and had an understanding of the MCA..

People received care and support from staff who were kind, caring and respectful. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity and provided care in accordance with people’s preferences.

People were encouraged to provide feedback on the service in various ways both formally and informally to ensure they were receiving the care and support they required. People, and their relatives were involved in the assessments and reviews of care and support.

Care records were detailed and provided staff with guidance to enable them to provide consistent care that met each person’s needs. Changes to people’s care was kept under review to ensure that their needs were being met.

The provider had informal processes in place to monitor the quality and safety of people’s care. However, the provider did not have an effective quality assurance system in place.to monitor the quality of the services provided for people.

People felt listened to by the staff and said that the registered provider and care staff were reassuring and approachable.

We did not speak with any person during this review. However, we found that people were satisfied with the way they were looked and had positive comments to make when we last inspected the service on 16 April 2014.

This review was in response to findings of the last inspection of 16 April 2014, during which we found that not all staff members had received appropriate training and development. The provider wrote to tell us what remedial action was to be taken to be compliant by 30 June 2014. During this review of 17 July 2014 we have found evidence to support this.

Is the service caring?

People told us that they were satisfied with the standard and quality of their support and care. They said that they liked members of staff and through our observations we found that members of staff were kind, considerate and respectful.

Is the service responsive?

We saw that people's individual physical and mental support, care and treatment needs were assessed and planned for. Their individual choices and preferences regarding their support and care were valued. In addition, there was an effective system in place to respond to people's complaints.

We saw people's individual support and care needs were being met. People said that their call visits had helped them feel better. They said that this was because members of staff had treated them well and had helped to reduce the negative feelings of social isolation and loneliness.

Is the service safe?

People were very satisfied with how their support and care needs were being met by a consistent team of members of staff. This made people develop both trust and confidence in staff members' capabilities, which they said had made them feel secure.

Most of the members of staff were trained and supported to safely do their job. However, not all members of staff had attended training to safely do their work. This included, for instance, the safe use of medication and health and safety training. We have asked the provider to tell us what they are going to do to meet the requirements of the law in relation to the training of staff.

CQC monitors the operation of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards which applies to care services. While no applications have needed to be submitted, there were no proper policies and procedures in place. Relevant staff had not been trained to understand when an application should be made, and how to submit one. The provider gave us verbal assurances that remedial action would be taken and completed by no later than 31 May 2014 regarding this issue.

Risk assessments regarding people's individual health and safety were carried out and measures were in place to minimise these risks.

People were provided with safe and appropriate support and care by a sufficient number of staff. People who used the service said that they had confidence in the capabilities of members of staff.

Is the service effective?

People who used the service were satisfied with how they were actively consulted about their support, care and treatment. We saw that members of staff actively consult people about these and effectively carried out people's stated wishes.

People were able to stay living at home because their support and care needs were safely and appropriately met.

Is the service well led?

Improvements had been made since out previous inspection, which we carried out on 07 October 2013. This was regarding the updating of essential policies.

Staff said that they felt supported and trained to safely do their job. Improvements had been made since our 07 October 2013 inspection to ensure that people who used the service received support and care from suitable members of staff. We also found that they had been assessed and deemed competent to safely do their job.

Members of staff and people who used the service were provided with both formal and informal opportunities to share their views about the standard and quality of the service provision, and these were acted on, where needed.

If you wish to see the evidence supporting our summary please read the full report.

People had positive comments about the standard and quality of their support, care and treatment. They were provided with support, care and treatment that maintained their health, safety and wellbeing.

There were support practices in place to ensure that people were protected from the health risks associated with the taking of inadequate amounts of food and drink. People were provided with opportunities to make their choices about what they liked to eat and drink.

Recruitment systems were in place to protect people who used the service from unsuitable staff.

People said that they were treated well and also said that they had confidence in the competency of members of staff. Staff were provided with relevant support and training to safely do their job.

Informal, but appropriate, systems were in place to monitor the quality and standard of people's support, care and treatment. In addition, people's care records were kept up-to-date to protect them from unsafe support, care and treatment. Work was in progress to make sure that the quality of the policies and procedures was maintained.

During this inspection of 28 July 2012 we found that the provider had taken effective remedial action to ensure that vulnerable people who used the service were protected from unsuitable staff. Improvements had been made to the recruitment and selection of prospective health care assistants.