Archived: Coastal Homecare (Worthing)

Coastal Homecare (Worthing) is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to approximately 41 people at the time of the inspection. People using the service were living with a range of care and support needs such as dementia and physical disabilities. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

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

People were protected from the risk of abuse and felt safe. One person told us, “They provide excellent safe and secure care. Coastal are the best.” People’s medicines were well managed, and lessons learned when things went wrong.

Staff were kind and caring to people and knew them well. People’s privacy and dignity was respected, and their independence promoted. People were supported to express their views by staff who understood their communication needs. People felt listened to. One person told us, “The Manager and Care Coordinator supervisor are excellent people who listen.”

People received care from trained and knowledgeable staff. People’s nutritional needs were understood and met by staff. Staff worked proactively with other professionals to meet people’s health and wellbeing needs in a timely way.

Staff were responsive to people’s needs and delivered their care in the way they preferred. People understood how to make complaints, and these had been responded to in a timely way. One person told us, “Issues are dealt with immediately.” People were supported compassionately at the end of their lives.

The service was well managed. People, their relatives and staff were complimentary of the management of the service. Quality assurance and audit processes were in place and actions taken to improve the quality of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (the last report was published on 13 January 2017)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Coastal Homecare (Worthing) is a domiciliary care service providing support to people in their own homes living in Worthing and surrounding areas such as Shoreham-by-sea in West Sussex. Staff were deployed into two geographical areas and named the Adur team and the Worthing team. The service supported older people, people living with dementia and people with a physical disability. At the time of our visit, they were supporting 43 people with personal care.

The service had a registered manager in post who had been registered since the service opened in 2014; therefore the service had not been inspected by the Commission. 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.

Accidents and incidents were responded to by staff without delay and the appropriate medical professionals were contacted for advice and support when required. Staff were able to speak about what action they would take if they had a concern or felt a person was at risk of potential abuse or neglect. However, we found one incident of potential abuse was not escalated and reported to the local West Sussex safeguarding team by the office. We made a recommendation to the provider so the appropriate action is taken to ensure the local safeguarding authority and the commission are informed about any incidents of potential abuse to people. People and their relatives told us they felt Coastal Homecare (Worthing) provided a safe service.

All people had care records and when risks had been identified for people a risk assessment was put in place. However, risk assessments did not always provide the level of guidance required for staff supporting people in their own homes. The registered manager and team made changes to risk assessments during our inspection.

People, staff and records checked there were sufficient staff to meet the needs of people. Some people told us improvements could be made with regard to the timings of some calls. The service followed safe recruitment practices. People’s medicines were managed safely.

Staff felt confident with the support and guidance they had been given during their induction and subsequent training. Supervisions, appraisals, spot checks and competency assessments were consistently carried out for all staff supporting people. People’s consent to care and treatment was considered. Staff understood the requirements under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and about people’s capacity to make decisions. Some people received support with food and drink and they made positive comments about staff and the way they met this need. Changes in people’s health care needs and their support was reviewed when required. If people required input from other healthcare professionals, this was arranged.

Staff spoke kindly to people and had a caring approach. People spoke positively about the care they received in their own homes. Staff involved people with their care provided and promoted their independence. People were treated with dignity and respect.

People received personalised care. People’s care had been planned and individual care plans were in place. People were involved in reviewing care plans with the management team. People had access to contact information in their own homes. People knew who to approach if they needed to make a complaint or raise concerns to the office.

There were audits in place to measure the quality of care received by people using the service. People’s views about the quality of the service were obtained informally through discussions with the registered manager and team, care reviews, telephone reviews and annual surveys.

During the inspection we found the registered manager open to feedback and enthusiastic about providing a high standard of care to people. The registered manager had introduced systems to promote good practice. A supervisor, care coordinator, training manager and senior carer provided consistency in the delivery of care and an additional link between the office and people in their own homes.