Archived: Carewatch (Kirklees)

Updated 2 December 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 31 October 2016 and was announced. The registered provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service; we needed to be sure the registered manager would be available to meet with us. The inspection team consisted of two adult social care inspectors. We also visited Carewatch (Kirklees) office on 4 November, this visit was also announced.

Before the inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service. We contacted Healthwatch to see if they had received any information about the provider. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We contacted the local authority safeguarding, commissioning and monitoring team and reviewed all the information regarding the service.

During our visit we spent time looking at nine people’s care plans, we also looked at eight records relating to staff recruitment and training, and various documents relating to the service’s quality assurance systems. We spoke with the registered manager, care co-ordinator and the quality officer. Following the inspection we spoke with six care staff on the telephone. We also spoke on the telephone with four people who used the service and nine relatives of people who used the service.

Updated 2 December 2016

The inspection of Carewatch (Kirklees) took place on 31 October 2016 and was announced. We previously inspected the service on 26 February 2014. The service was not in breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 regulations at that time.

Carewatch (Kirklees) is registered to provide personal care. Care and support was provided to approximately 120 people who lived in their own homes within the Huddersfield area.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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.

People told us they felt safe. Staff received safeguarding training and were aware of their responsibilities in keeping people safe from the risk of harm or abuse. Care plans contained generic and person specific risk assessments which recorded the steps staff should take to reduce the risk of harm to people and to themselves.

There were systems in place to reduce the risk of employing staff who may not be suited to caring for vulnerable people. People who used the service and staff told us calls were not missed and people usually received care and support from regular staff.

All staff received regular training in medicine awareness and we saw there had been recent improvements made to the observational assessment of staff’s competency to administer people’s medicines. There had also been changes to the medicine administration record to ensure relevant details for each prescribed medicine were recorded.

New staff received induction training and shadowed a more experienced member of staff when they commenced employment. Staff received regular refresher training and there was a program in place to ensure staff received ongoing supervision including a field based assessment of their skills.

Staff had received training in regards to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Changes had recently been made to the organisations care planning documentation regarding capacity assessments and appointed lasting power of attorneys’. Care plans contained a customer consent form to enable people to consent to the package of care they received from Carewatch (Kirklees).

Everyone we spoke with told us staff were caring and kind. People told us staff treated them with respect and took steps to maintain their privacy. Staff were able to tell us about the actions they took to maintain people’s dignity and ensure peoples private information was kept confidential.

People and staff told us care plans were in place and were reflective of people’s needs. We found care plans were person centred and recorded a good level of detail about the person’s needs and preferences. A record was maintained of the daily care and support staff provided to people and there was a system in place to enable office staff to know when care records needed to be reviewed and updated.

No-one we spoke with raised any concerns or complaints about the service, people told us if they had any issues, they would telephone the office to discuss the matter with a member of the office team. Feedback from staff and people who used the service was positive.

There was a system in place to assess and monitor the service provided to people. This included staff meetings, audits of records and feedback from people who used the service. The organisations head office provided Carewatch (Kirklees) with a monthly overview in regard to their performance in a number of key areas, including staff training and review of peoples care records.