Archived: Bletchley Community Hospital

Updated 25 January 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 was planned to check 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 second comprehensive inspection took place on the 7, 11 and 14 December 2017 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours' notice of the inspection to ensure that staff were available to support the inspection.

The inspection was undertaken by one inspector and one expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The expert by experience for this inspection had experience of using services regulated by CQC due to a long term health condition.

Prior to the inspection the registered manager had completed a Provider Information Return [PIR]. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The provider returned the PIR and we took this into account when we made judgements in this report.

We reviewed the information we held about the service, including questionnaires that had been completed by people who used the service, staff and community professionals. We also reviewed statutory notifications that the provider had sent us; a statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also contacted Healthwatch; an independent consumer champion for people who use health and social care services.

During this inspection we visited two people who used the service and spoke with them and their relatives. We also spoke with six people and five relatives on the telephone. We spoke with seven members of staff at the office location and three members of staff on the telephone. Staff spoken to included; reablement assistants, team leaders, the registered manager and head of service. We also spoke with an occupational therapist who worked alongside reablement staff to provide therapeutic assessments and support to people. We looked at five records relating to the personal care support of people and five staff recruitment records. We looked at other information related to the running of and the quality of the service. This included quality assurance audits, training and supervision information for staff, staffing schedules and arrangements for managing complaints.

Updated 25 January 2018

Bletchley Community Hospital reablement at home team are part of the Milton Keynes Reablement and Rehabilitation Service (Intermediate Care). The service provides short term support with personal care to people in their own homes. The service usually works with people for a maximum of 6 weeks to enable them to reach their short term goals and become more independent. At the time of our inspection 89 people were receiving support from the service.

At the last inspection, on 16, 17 and 18 December 2015, the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found that the service remained Good.

Staff had an understanding of abuse and the safeguarding procedures that should be followed to report abuse. Risk assessments were in place to manage risk within a person's life. There were arrangements in place for the service to make sure that action was taken and lessons learned when things went wrong, to improve safety across the service.

People received their medicines as prescribed and staff supported people to access support from healthcare professionals when required. The service worked with other organisations to ensure that people received coordinated and person-centred care and support.

Staff recruitment procedures ensured that appropriate pre-employment checks were carried out to ensure only suitable staff worked at the service. Adequate staffing levels were in place.

Staff induction training and on-going training was provided to ensure that staff had the skills, knowledge and support they needed to perform their roles. Staff were well supported by the senior management team and had regular one to one supervisions.

Staff demonstrated their understanding of the Mental Capacity Act, 2005 (MCA) and they gained people's consent before providing support.

People were involved in planning how their support would be provided and staff took time to understand people’s needs and preferences. Care documentation provided staff with appropriate guidance regarding the care and support people needed to regain their independence. Staff treated people with kindness, dignity and respect and spent time getting to know them and their specific needs and wishes.

People, relatives and staff were encouraged to provide feedback about the service and it was used to drive continuous improvement. The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and had a process in place which ensured people could raise any complaints or concerns.

The service notified the Care Quality Commission of certain events and incidents, as required.