23 May 2016
During a routine inspection
Assured Care Northwest Ltd is a domiciliary care agency in Southport, which provides care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection, there were 75 people receiving care in their homes.
There was a registered manager in post. 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.
We found a breach in respect of records regarding how mental capacity assessments were completed which suggested management and staff were unclear about how to apply the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (2005).
People told us they felt safe with Assured Care. Staff we spoke to had a good knowledge of safeguarding and how to recognise signs of abuse. The provider had procedures in place which would help keep people who used the service safe from harm. We could see these procedures were discussed as part of the induction process.
People who use the service felt staff had the right skills and knowledge to support them do their job.
The provider had risk assessments and care plans in place for people. Those we looked at contained all relevant information about the needs of the person.
People received their medicines as prescribed and safe practices had been followed in the administration and recording of medicines.
People told us there were enough suitably trained staff to meet their individual care needs. Staff were only appointed after a thorough recruitment process.
People confirmed there were enough staff available to meet their call times and durations.
People’s privacy and dignity was upheld.
Staff monitored people’s health and welfare needs and acted on issues identified. People had been referred to healthcare professionals when needed.
Staff were trained and skilled in all mandatory subjects. Staff we spoke with were able to explain their development plans to us in detail and told us they enjoyed the training they received.
Staff said they benefited from regular one to one supervision and appraisal from their manager.
There was a safeguarding and a whistleblowing policy in place, which staff were familiar with.
Quality assurance audits were carried out and feedback was collected regularly from staff, relatives and people using the service. These were analysed and responded too appropriately. We could see the registered manager was using this feedback to continuously improve the service offered. Other quality assurance audits we saw were highly detailed and the registered manager responded appropriately to shortfalls identified within the service provision. Working action plans and target dates for completion were seen.
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of this report.