Archived: Melton Care Services Limited

Updated 21 June 2016

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 inspection took place on 18 and 19 May 2016 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice of the first day of the inspection because the service is a home care agency and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure they would be in. We told the provider we would return to complete our inspection the next day.

The inspection team consisted of an inspector and an 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.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and what improvements they plan to make.

A few days before our inspection visit we telephoned 10 people who used the service but we were able to speak to only three people. We spoke with relatives of three people. Also before our inspection we sent a questionnaire survey to 42 people using the service of whom 15 replied. We sent a questionnaire survey to 42 relatives of whom 6 replied. We looked at three people’s care plans and associated records. We looked at information about the support that staff received through training and appraisal. We looked at three staff recruitment files to see how the provider operated their recruitment procedures. We looked at records associated with the provider’s monitoring of the quality of the service.

We spoke with the registered manager, branch manager, a training manager; a home care visits scheduler and three care workers.

We contacted the local authority who paid for the care of some of the people using the service. We also contacted Healthwatch Leicestershire who are the local consumer champion for people using adult social care services.

Updated 21 June 2016

The inspection took place on 18 and 19 May 2016. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of the first day of our inspection because the service is a home care agency and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure they would be in. We told the provider we would return the following day to complete our inspection.

Melton Care Services is a home care agency supporting people who live in their own homes in the Melton Mowbray area of Leicestershire. At the time of our inspection 88 people used the service.

The service had a registered manager. 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 divided their time between this service and another registered service in Shepshed, Leicestershire. They were supported at this service by a branch manager.

People who used the service were safe when they received care and support. The provider advised them about safety in their home. The provider had a recruitment procedure under which all the required pre-employment checks were carried out.

People’s care plans included risk assessments of activities associated with their personal care routines. The risk assessments provided information for care workers that enabled them to support people safely but without restricting people’s independence.

Enough suitably skilled and knowledgeable staff were deployed to meet the needs of the people who used the service. At times, office based staff who were trained care workers carried out home care visits to ensure that all scheduled visits were made. Staff arranging home care visits were skilled and knowledgeable about people’s needs and ensured that people were supported by the same care workers as often as possible.

All staff were trained in how to support people with their medicines. Staff reminded people to take their oral medicines. They applied medicinal creams to people who required them.

People were cared for and supported by care workers who had the appropriate training and support to understand their needs. People who used the service and their relatives spoke about staff in complimentary and positive terms. Staff were supported through supervision, appraisal and training. Staff valued the support that they received.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2015. Staff had awareness of the MCA. They understood they could provide care and support only if a person consented to it.

Care workers either prepared meals for people or supported people to make their meals.

Care workers received training to help them understand about medical conditions people lived with. They supported people to attend healthcare appointments and to access health services when they needed them.

Care workers were caring and knowledgeable about people’s needs. Not all people were consistently supported by the same care workers. Most people received home care visits close to the times they expected but a small number did not.

People who used the service were involved in decisions about their care and support. They received the information they needed about the service and about their care and support. People told us they were always treated with dignity and respect.

People contributed to the assessment of their needs and to reviews of their care plans. People’s care plans were centred on their individual needs. People knew how to raise concerns if they felt they had to and they were confident they would be taken seriously by the provider.

People who used the service and staff had opportunities to be involved in the development of the service. The registered manager and care workers were well regarded by most of the people who used the service and their relatives.

The provider had arrangements for monitoring the quality of the service. These arrangements were in the process of being upgraded at the time of our inspection and, if utilised to their potential, would help the service improve punctuality of home care visits and ensuring as far as possible that people were supported by regular care workers.