Archived: Handley Care Services

Handley Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community and specialist housing. It provides a service to people living with a physical disability, learning disability, autism or sensory impairment.

This service provides care and support to people living in one 'supported living' setting, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support. At the time of our inspection there were nine people using the service.

People's experience of using this service:

People's safety was promoted; staff understood how to protect people from the risk of harm and understood potential signs of abuse. People were involved in assessments of potential risks to their safety and in identifying measures to keep them safe. Care plans provided clear guidance for staff to follow.

People were supported by a consistent team of staff who were safely recruited. People received their medicines as prescribed and were protected from the risk of infections through staff working practices.

Staff received training, supervision and support so they could effectively perform their roles and meet people needs. People were provided with care and support that ensured they had good nutrition and hydration and access to healthcare that maintained their health and wellbeing.

People were supported to have choice and control over their care and support in the least restrictive way possible.

People and those important to them were involved in the planning and development of their care and support. Staff were skilled at enabling people to communicate their choices and decisions. Staff were described as very caring, understanding, patient and supportive. Staff knew people well and used this knowledge to provide personalised care. Staff respected and promoted people's rights, including their right to be treated with respect and dignity.

People were supported to develop new skills, maintain relationships and engage in meaningful activities and interests. Staff forged links with the local services to enable people to be a part of their local community. People and relatives knew how to raise a concern or complaint. The provider's complaints policy provided information about how these would be managed and responded to.

The manager was actively involved in the day to day provision of care and support and as such had a good oversight into the quality of the service provided. They intended to develop systems to formalise the recording of outcomes of checks and audits as part of overall quality assurance.

People, relatives and staff spoke positively about the management and leadership of the service, as being open and transparent. The manager listened to feedback and took action to make improvements to the service. Staff were encouraged to share ideas about how to develop the service. The service worked in partnership with external agencies to ensure people achieved the best possible outcomes from their care and support.

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

Rating at last inspection:

At our last inspection the service was rated as Good. Our last report was published on 18 June 2016.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

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

Hadley care provides personal care for adults in their own homes and for people in supported living. This includes people living with physical disabilities and people with learning disabilities.

At the last inspection carried out in June 2013, there was one breach of Regulations. This had been successfully addressed at this inspection.

Hadley care is required to have a registered manager in post and the time of the inspection visits there was not one in post. However an application had been made by the manager to register with CQC. 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.

People felt safe and secure using the service. There were systems and procedures in place which were followed to ensure appropriate pre-employment checks were made on staff prior to them working with the people who used the service. Staff understood how to protect people from potential harm and how to report any concerns.

New staff completed a period of shadowing and induction training prior to them supporting people with their care needs. The provider ensured staff received training relevant to their roles and responsibilities.

Staff treated people with dignity and respect. People felt the staff understood their individual needs. The management team ensured people were involved in their own care and decision making. Staff understood the key principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005.

Care plans contained information to assist staff in providing personalised care. People were given information on what to do if they had any concerns or complaints. Staff felt confident if they had any concerns or complaints the registered manager and management team would take action and endeavour to resolve them.

People had their individual care plans reviewed to ensure they received the care and service they required. People were listened to and felt their individual needs were understood by the staff. Staff reported any changes to people’s health conditions to ensure continuity of care.

The registered manager and the management team strived to provide people with the support of staff at the time when they wanted it. This could change daily as some people had commitments such as a day centre or visiting families.

People’s independence was promoted and encouraged by staff who understood their individual needs. Staff were aware of people’s needs and wishes and supported them in a personalised manner. When needed, staff assisted and supported people with their nutritional needs and meal preparation.

The provider had processes in place to monitor the quality of the service people received. There were clear arrangements for the day to day running of the service. The service was managed by a team who understood their roles and responsibilities in providing a good service to people.

We saw that improvements were being made to the way that care was planned at Handley Care Services and that new care plans were detailed and personalised. Risks were assessed and managed and people's health needs were being included in their care plans.

We looked at medication systems and saw that arrangements were appropriate for medicines to be administered and recorded safely.

We found that staff were trained, or training was planned to provide appropriate support for people, and that this included specialist training to meet people's particular needs.

The manager was monitoring the quality of the service and identifying and managing risks. They told us that they were creating a new system to collate information about the quality of the service.

We examined care files and found that consent was not being obtained for people's care. Because of their learning disability, some people were unable to make decisions about their care. The provider was not making appropriate arrangements to obtain their consent and ensure that decisions made on people's behalf were in their best interests.

We found that people's privacy and dignity was respected and that people and their relatives were involved in making decisions about their care. We also found that people were provided with opportunities to be independent and to be involved in their community.

We saw that staff had received appropriate training about how to protect people from abuse and were able to describe how this was done. We also saw that staff were recruited using appropriate procedures. We also found that staff received appropriate training and support to provide people's care.

We saw that although some assessments and care plans were in place that these were not fully accurate and had not been updated to include changes in people's care needs. We also found that risks that could affect people were not always assessed as part of the planning of their care and also that it was unclear whether people were always receiving their prescribed medication. Because of this we found that the provider was not fully protecting people from the risk of receiving unsafe or inappropriate care.