Archived: Cumbria-DeafVision

Updated 25 October 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.

Service and service type

Cumbria-DeafVision is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The previous registered manager had recently resigned. A temporary manager had been employed and had submitted an application to become the registered manager.

Notice of inspection

The first day of this inspection was announced. We arranged the remaining visit dates in agreement with the manager, which included visiting people in their homes on the 10 September.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We also sought feedback from Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service via an interpreter and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 10 members of staff including two trustees, the manager, seven care staff and an interpreter. We spoke with one staff member from another service where two people lived. We also contacted a care manager to obtain their views. We used their comments to support the judgment of this inspection.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three care plans and three medicine administration records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment, training and support. We also reviewed a range of management documentation, including policies and procedures.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 25 October 2019

About the service

Cumbria-DeafVision is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to adults with a range of health issues in their own homes, predominantly those with a hearing impairment. 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. At the time of the inspection three people were supported in this way.

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

Medicines were not always managed safely. Risk assessments were not always in place and therefore staff did not have all the information necessary to minimise risk. Accidents and incident learning was not always shared.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff always supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. However, the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice and records of mental capacity assessments and best interests decisions were not always in place.

Quality checks were not robust and had not identified the issues we found. The manager and board of trustees responded to our feedback and took steps to make improvements straight away, including sending us an action plan of how they were going to do this.

Care records needed to be reviewed to ensure they were accurate and up to date. Whilst some care plans were very detailed, others contained limited information or were missing detail.

There were enough staff on duty and people were supported to eat and drink sufficiently.

People received care from kind and compassionate staff, although we did receive one concern which was going to be investigated by management. Staff knew people well and provided support which met people’s needs. People were respected and encouraged to be as independent as possible and staff maintained their dignity.

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 (published 22 March 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Enforcement

We have identified two breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.