Grace Care UK

The service is a domiciliary care service, situated in Leicester. It provides personal care and treatment of disease, disorder and injury to older people, people with physical disabilities, younger adults and children from the ages of 13 to 18, living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection visit, three people were provided with personal care by the service.

People’s experience of using this service

Risk assessments were in place to protect people from risks to their health and welfare.

Staff recruitment checks were carried out to protect people from receiving personal care from unsuitable staff.

A person and relatives said that safe personal care was provided.

Staff had been trained in safeguarding (protecting people from abuse). Staff members understood their responsibilities to safeguard people and to contact relevant agencies if needed.

The registered manager was aware that certain incidents, if they occurred, needed to be reported to us, as legally required.

Staff had largely received training to ensure they had skills and knowledge to meet people's needs. Further specialist training had not yet been provided on people’s health conditions.

Staff members understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) to allow, as much as possible, people to have effective choices about how they lived their lives. Staff were aware to ask people's consent when they provided personal care. Capacity assessments were in place to determine how best to support people who did not have capacity to decide aspects of their lifestyles.

A person and relatives told us that staff were very friendly, caring and kind. They said they had been involved in making decisions about how and what personal care was needed to meet personal care needs.

Care plans contained personalised information about people’s preferences and likes and dislikes, though there was little information about people’s history, which would help staff to ensure that people’s needs were fully met.

Staffing levels were sufficient to always provide people with the care they needed though care calls were not always timely.

People and relatives, except one relative, were confident that any concerns they had would be properly followed up. They were satisfied with how the service was run. Staff members said they had been supported in their work by the registered manager.

Audits to measure that a quality service had been provided to people were carried out though not all the important issues had been audited.

Staff worked in partnership with relatives so that people got the support they required from other agencies.

The voice of people, relatives and staff were not comprehensively involved in the running of the service to help drive improvements.

Rating at last inspection:

The service was rated Good at the last inspection. Our last report was published for the inspection of August 2016.

Why we inspected.

This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up.

We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people received safe, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates.

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

Grace Care UK is registered to provide personal care. The registered location is situated in Leicester and provides care to people who live in their own homes in and around Leicester and Leicestershire. There were six people using this service at the time of our inspection.

The service had a registered manager who was also the registered provider. 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.

This was our first inspection of this service since they registered with us.

People were kept safe from the risk of harm. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse and who to raise concerns with. People had assessments in relation to their care and safety which identified actions staff needed to take to protect them from risks. People were supported to take their medicines safely.

People were supported by the number of staff identified as necessary in their care plans to keep them safe. There were robust recruitment and induction processes in place to ensure new members of staff were suitable to support the people who used the service.

Staff undertook a range of training to give them the skills and knowledge to ensure people were supported in line with their care needs. Staff told us they felt supported and were in regular contact with the registered manager who supported them to meet people's care needs.

Staff we spoke with had a good understanding of the key principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People told us staff asked their consent before providing care. People and relatives spoke positively about the food that staff prepared for them. Staff worked with other health and social professionals to ensure that people received the health care they needed.

Positive and complimentary comments were received from people and relatives about the staff that supported them. People told us they made decisions about how they wanted their care to be provided. Staff were knowledgeable about people's likes and dislikes. Staff maintained people's privacy and dignity whilst supporting them to remain as independent as possible.

The registered manager was responsive to people's needs and changing views. Personalised care plans were in place to enable staff to provide care the way that people preferred. Staff took the time to develop relationships with people they were supporting. People felt they could speak with staff and the registered manager about their concerns or complaints and that they would be listened to.

People and their relatives were confident in how the service was led and the abilities of the registered manager. The registered manager consulted with people to find out their views on the care provided. There were systems in place for audit and quality assurance but these required further development to evidence how the provider used audits and feedback to drive improvement and develop the service.