Archived: Temple Mead Care Ltd

This inspection took place on 1 and 17 September 2015 and was unannounced. The inspection was undertaken by two inspectors on 1 September 2015 and one inspector on 17 September 2015.

Temple Mead Care Ltd provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 70 people who were receiving a service. This was the first inspection of the service since it’s registration in July 2014 at this location.

There was a registered manager in post but due to personal reasons they were not available during the inspection. 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.

Prior to our inspection we had received information indicating that people were not always getting their calls as planned, there were not always sufficient staff available and recruitment and training practices were lacking consistency.

During our inspection we saw that people were not always protected from potential harm because the required recruitments checks were not carried out consistently to ensure that only suitable people were employed to support people.

People were not always supported by staff that had the skills and experience to support people safely. People’s needs were not always met because staff had not attended the call or because staff had not attended the calls at the agreed times.

The provider did not have systems in place that ensured that they were able to assess and monitor the quality of the service to ensure that people received a good quality service.

This meant that the registered provider was not always meeting the law. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

People were not always protected from abuse because staff were able to recognise the signs of abuse and knew how to raise any concerns they had but there was a risk that not all safeguarding concerns were raised with the local authority by senior staff.

Plans were in place to manage and minimise the risks associated with the care and support people received. Staff were knowledgeable about what they should do in emergency situations but did not always follow them. This could leave people at risk of not having their needs met.

People were supported to take their medicines as required however, on occasions this did not happen because a call had not been attended.

Staff received training to equip them with the skills and knowledge that they required but the training was not always provided by a trained individual. Staff received some support to ensure that they provided good care through supervision sessions.

People were happy with their regular staff and had built up friendly relationships with them but were concerned that there was a lack of continuity of care with regular changes in the staff that supported them.

People were supported to make choices and involved in the care and support they received.

Privacy and dignity was maintained and people were supported to carry out tasks themselves so that they maintained their independence as long as possible.

People knew how to raise concerns about the service they received but were not always happy with the responses they received.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘Special measures’.

Services in special measures will be kept under review and, if we have not taken immediate action to propose to cancel the provider’s registration of the service, will be inspected again within six months.

The expectation is that providers found to have been providing inadequate care should have made significant improvements within this timeframe.

If not enough improvement is made within this timeframe so that there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve. This service will continue to be kept under review and, if needed, could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there

is not enough improvement so there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action to prevent the provider from operating this service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration.

For adult social care services the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.