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West STSS (Short Term Support Service) Hexham

Overall: Outstanding read more about inspection ratings

Dene Park House, Corbridge Road, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 1HN (01434) 612900

Provided and run by:
Northumberland County Council

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 5 September 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. The service also had a service manager who was in the process of applying to take over the role of registered manager. The service manager ran the service on a day-to-day basis.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service a short period of notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 25 July 2023 and ended on 7 August 2023. We visited the location’s office on 31 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we already held about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 9 members of staff, including the registered manager, service manager and regional manager. We also spoke with 2 occupational therapists, 3 reablement workers and a senior administration worker.

We spoke with 2 people using the service, one relative and a friend who was supporting an individual using the service. We spoke with 3 health and social care professionals.

During our visit we looked at care records, medication records, staff recruitment records, supervision and competence documentation, training records, and the policies and procedures used by the provider.

Overall inspection

Outstanding

Updated 5 September 2023

About the service

West STSS (Short Term Support Service) Hexham is provided by Northumberland County Council. It provides three distinct services: reablement, therapeutic support (Occupational Therapy and equipment support) and a 'bridging' service, when people are awaiting longer-term care packages. Services are delivered in people’s own homes. At the time of the inspection, the service was providing reablement to 9 people and bridging support to 6 people. The service was supporting over 100 people with therapeutic services. Not all the people supported by therapeutic services were actively engaged at the time of the inspection, although all had a designated staff member to contact for support.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were supported by staff who delivered safe and effective care. Safeguarding matters had been reported and recorded and action taken where necessary to address any shortfalls. Assessments were undertaken to minimise risks to people and staff. Accidents and incidents were reviewed to learn lessons for the future. There were sufficient staff to support people’s needs and people told us there had been no missed appointments and that staff stayed for their full allocated time. Medicines were managed effectively.

Managers maintained an overview of the service and conducted checks on care delivery and staff competencies. Staff supervision was in place and health professionals supported to access clinical support. People were supported to express their views on the service and the overall satisfaction with the service was high. Staff said they were well supported by managers.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was outstanding (published 15 March 2018)

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and the time that had passed since our last inspection.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained outstanding based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for West STSS (Short Term Support Service) Hexham on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.