25 January 2017
During a routine inspection
This announced inspection took place on 25 and 30 January 2017. Crescent Community Care Services Limited is a long established care agency based in Southsea. They provide personal care to people in their own homes. They are contracted by Portsmouth City Council to provide care at home for people who are funded by the local authority and who live in the PO4 postal area. They also provide a service for people who fund themselves privately. At the time of our inspection people using the service had a range of health and social care needs. Some people were being supported to live with dementia whilst others were supported with specific health conditions including diabetes, sensory impairments, and mental health diagnoses. People using the service had a range of needs from social care visits to check on their wellbeing to full personal care with the assistance of two care staff. The agency also provided a live in care service.
There was a registered manager in post. 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 agency was last inspected in January 2014. There were no breaches of legal requirements then and we did not identify any breaches in legal requirements during this inspection.
Overall most people were satisfied with the agency. People told us they felt safely cared for. Staff were trained in how to recognise potential abuse and knew what procedures to follow to keep people safe. Action was taken where necessary to ensure people were provided with safe care and support.
There were sufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people's needs and staff recruitment procedures were robust to help ensure only suitable staff were employed. New staff received a thorough induction and were supported by more experienced and senior staff to help them to understand their role.
People's health, medicines and nutritional needs were known and staff followed guidance in people's care plans to ensure they provided effective and consistent support. People were consulted about their care and support needs and were involved in the planning and review of their care. People's wishes and preferences were respected as much as possible and staff had a good understanding of the principles within the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which helped to protect people's rights.
Staff were kind and caring. They treated people with respect and understood the importance of maintaining confidentiality. Staff encouraged people to be as independent as possible.
The agency listened to people's views. Any comments or complaints were taken seriously and were responded to quickly. Staff were clear about their role and responsibilities. Managers clearly took a pride in their job.
There were effective quality assurance processes in place to help to ensure the service was delivered to a consistently good standard. The management team had identified some areas they were acting on to improve the service further. They were adding more detail to care plans and risk assessments and were arranging for more regular face to face meetings with staff to ensure they kept up to date with training requirements and to enable them to have more regular supervision.