26 July 2023
During a routine inspection
About the service
MacIntyre Hertfordshire is a supported living service providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, they were supporting 13 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Care:
Risk assessment and care plans needed further development to be clear on individual support needs. There were examples where in places they were not coordinated, which caused confusion with staff.
People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. The service worked well with other agencies to ensure people’s health needs were met.
People who had individual ways of communicating, such as using body language and pictures, could interact with staff and others involved in their care and support because staff had the necessary skills to understand them. Further consideration needed to be taken with how to have meaningful conversations with people and gaining their views.
We have made a recommendation that the registered manager looks at different forms of communication to help people to express their views taking into consideration the resources readily available from the provider.
Right Support:
People’s mental capacity assessments were not always clear as to whether the assessment and decision was in the person’s best interest and if this was the least restrictive measure.
Staff supported people to keep a clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment that met their needs.
Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community. Staff supported people with their medicines and encouraged them to play an active role in maintaining their own health and wellbeing.
Staff respected people’s choices and supported them to make decisions about their day-to-day care.
Right Culture:
Governance systems were not always effective to ensure it provided quality oversight of the service. Staff were not supported to receive all of the training and development they required to fully understand their roles.
However, people received reliable care because staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive. People and those important to them, were able to share their views about the care.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
This service was registered with us on 23 March 2022 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.