Archived: Danso Care

Updated 30 March 2015

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

We told the provider two days before our visit that we would be coming. We gave the provider notice of our inspection as we needed to make sure that someone was at the office in order for us to carry out the inspection. A single inspector undertook the inspection.

Before we visited the service we checked the information that we held about the service and the service provider including notifications and incidents affecting the safety and well-being of people. We also had discussions with the local authority to obtain their views of service delivery.

During our inspection we went to the provider’s office and spoke with the registered manager, reviewed the care records of three people who used the service, reviewed the records of three staff and records relating to the management of the service. After the inspection visit, we made phone calls and spoke with two care workers and the training manager. We made attempts to speak with all the people who used the service and their relatives but were only able to reach one relative of a person who used the service.

Updated 30 March 2015

We undertook an announced inspection on 10 December 2014. We told the provider two days before our visit that we would be coming. We gave the provider notice of our inspection as we needed to make sure that someone was at the office in order for us to carry out the inspection. A single inspector undertook the inspection.

Danso Care provides domiciliary care to older people with physical or other disabilities who live in their home. At the time of our inspection, the service was providing care to three people.

The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission in March 2014. The inspection carried out on 10 December 2014 was the first inspection of the service to check whether they met the regulations inspected.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 who used the service had care plans and risk assessments in place. However, we noted that two people’s care support plans contained limited information and were task orientated and did not reflect people’s preferences or diversity.

We found that a safeguarding policy and procedure was in place. However, when speaking with staff, they were unable to tell us about different types of abuse and were unaware of external agencies that could be contacted to report an alleged abuse in order to protect people from harm.

When speaking with staff we found they did not have an understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and how it applied to the people they were providing care and support to on a daily basis.

Staff told us that they were supported to have the necessary knowledge and skills they needed to carry out their roles and responsibilities. However, there was no documented evidence that staff had received an induction and any supervision to ensure they were able to effectively care for people.

One relative of a person who used the service told us that they were satisfied with the care and support provided by the service. Staff were respectful of people’s privacy and maintained their dignity. Staff told us they gave people privacy whilst they undertook aspects of personal care. Staff had an understanding of people’s care and support needs and gave us examples of how they communicated with people and responded in a caring way.

One relative and staff we spoke with told us that they were able to speak with the registered manager if they had any concerns or wished to make a complaint. Staff told us they were supported by the registered manager and felt able to have open and transparent discussions with them.

Quality assurance systems were inconsistent and not always effective. There was no evidence that management carried out regular audits in order to identify areas of improvement.

We found breaches of the regulations relating to safeguarding, staff support and quality monitoring. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.