Archived: Daybreak Support Services

This inspection took place on 29 June 2016 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because it is small and we needed to be sure that they would be in. Daybreak Support Services provides care and support to people who have learning difficulties living in their own homes and in supported living accommodation. There were 12 people receiving support at the time of our inspection.

The provider has another service, The Anchorage, which is situated less than a mile away from the office where Daybreak Support Services is operated from. The Anchorage was also inspected as part of this visit. The two services have a number of staff who work across both of them. Records for both services are also held at the Daybreak Support Services offices.

There was a registered manager in place. 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. The registered manager was not available during this visit. We met with the providers HR manager during this visit. They were planning to apply to take over the registration of the service in the future.

The provider had a robust recruitment procedure in place. People were supported by staff who had only been employed after the provider had carried out checks. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to report any concerns and knew how to report this within the provider organisation.

People were supported by staff who had received an induction into the service and appropriate training, professional development and supervision to enable them to meet people's individual needs. There were enough staff to meet people's needs and to enable them to engage with people in a relaxed and unhurried manner.

Medicines were stored safely and only administered by staff that were appropriately trained. Medicine administration records were up to date with no gaps in recording. This demonstrated there were systems in place to ensure medicines were administered in line with doctors' instructions. Healthcare professionals such as chiropodists, opticians, GPs and dentists were involved in people's care when necessary.

Relatives were complimentary about the service and were made to feel welcome and could visit whenever they liked. There was information available if people or their relatives wanted complain.

The management team assessed and monitored the quality of the service through audits that were undertaken.

People using the service told us how they were supported by the staff to shop for ingredients and to make their own healthy meals. We saw that the staff understood how to support people to make healthy and nutritious meals.

We observed that staff were able to safely administer medication and that they followed the appropriate policies and procedures.

We looked at four staff files and saw that all recruitment and employment procedures had been appropriately followed and that documentation was complete and up to date.

The provider had a clear complaints procedure in place and we saw that this procedure had been followed. People who used the service knew how to make a complaint and were supported by staff, if required.

We found that staff members were gentle and listened to people. They supported people to remain as independent as possible and care records provided clear information about meeting the needs people could not meet themselves.

People said that they felt safe and that they were happy using the service provided by Daybreak Support Services. They confirmed they would be able to raise concerns with staff members and stated that they felt sure action would be taken. Staff members had a good understanding of their role in reporting abuse and how to support people if this happened.

Staff members received supervision and training from the provider or from external sources to ensure they had the skills and support to properly carry out their roles and care for people.

There were systems in place to regularly check and monitor the way the service was run.