Archived: NAS Community Services (North Yorkshire)

Feedback was generally positive from people and their relatives, with comments including 'It's mostly nice living here and the staff are nice to me' and 'I have no issues with the care provided.' However, people using the service, their relatives and staff all said they had encountered difficulties with the consistency of service through the use of agency and bank staff.

We saw from people's care plans that people were supported to live as independently as possible. People's consent was sought where possible, and their relatives involved. The service had carried out sufficient assessment of the needs of each person, and kept this under review, to enable appropriate care and support to be given.

At the last inspection, we found that some risk assessments and care plans had not been kept updated. This meant some people may have been put at risk of receiving unsafe or inappropriate care. On this visit, we found that records had been kept up to date, and new systems introduced to ensure this.

The service provided support to thirteen people at the time of our visit, although only two received personal care. We were not able to gain permission from the people who used the service to visit them in their own homes due to their complex needs, therefore we were not able to directly observe the service. We spoke by telephone with two people who received support from the agency. They told us that they were happy and satisfied with the support being provided. Comments included, "The staff are really nice people" and "The staff are very good and help me if I need it."

We spoke with three relatives of people who use the service, comments included 'Staff are wonderful and really good at the job they do' and "They always keep me informed if there's been any problems.' We spoke with three staff, who told us that in general, they were well supported and were provided with the information and training they needed to do their jobs.

We found that some risk assessments and care plans had not been kept updated. Whilst staff we spoke with were knowledgeable about the needs of the people they looked after, not keeping the records up to date means people may be put at risk of receiving unsafe or inappropriate care.