Northwich Network

Updated 24 November 2018

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 was 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 announced inspection was carried out on 8 and 9 November 2018 by an adult social care inspector. We gave the registered manager 24-hours’ notice of our inspection. This was because we needed to make sure that someone would be available to assist us with our inspection. At the time of our inspection the service provided personal care to 28 people living in their own homes and employed 49 staff.

Before our inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also looked at the statutory notifications sent to us by the provider about incidents and events that had occurred at the service. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send to us by law. We also contacted the local authority to gather their feedback about the service. We used all this information to plan how the inspection should be conducted.

During the inspection we spoke with and observed nine people supported by the service; this included meeting people at the day centre they attended and visiting three addresses where people lived with support from the service. We spoke with three people’s relatives. We also spoke with 12 members of staff who held different roles within the service. This included the registered manager, deputy manager, team supervisors and carers.

We looked at a range of documentation both at the service’s office and in people’s homes including three people’s care records, medication records, six staff recruitment files, staff training records, accident and incident report forms, safeguarding and complaints records, audits, policies and procedures and records relating to the quality checks undertaken by staff and other management records.

Updated 24 November 2018

This announced inspection was carried out on 8 and 9 November 2018 by an adult social care inspector. We gave the registered manager 24-hours’ notice of our inspection. This is because we needed to make sure that someone would be available to assist us with our inspection.

Northwich Network is a domiciliary care service run by VIVO Care Choices Limited, a company managed by Cheshire West and Chester Council. The service is registered to provide personal care to adults within their own homes. The service offers support to older people and people with learning disabilities, sensory impairments and physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection the service was providing support to 28 people and employed 49 staff.

At our last inspection we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the service remained good. We found no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

The service had systems in place to protect people from abuse.

People’s risk assessments in their care plans were managed well and covered all relevant aspects of their lives.

Staff were safely recruited at the service ensuring that only staff suitable to work with vulnerable people were employed.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Most staff were up-to-date with their training. Some staff were overdue refresher training in some areas but we saw that they were scheduled to attend the next available training sessions.

People were supported to plan, buy and prepare the food and drink that they wanted.

We observed that staff had well-established and positive relationships with the people they supported.

The care plans we reviewed were person-centred and gave staff the information that they needed to safely and effectively meet people’s needs.

People were supported to take part in a variety of activities that were important to them.

There was a positive and caring culture amongst all of the staff we spoke with during our inspection.

The service used a range of methods to gather feedback from the people and their relatives about the quality of care and support being provided.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. This means that the people supported by the service who live with learning disabilities and autism could live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.