8 December 2016
During a routine inspection
Darcy House is part of a community service provided by Triangle Community Services Limited. They provide an extra care service to people who are tenants at Darcy House, which is a sheltered housing unit. The service offers individuals personal care, support and 'extra care' they require to continue to live independently. Thirty two people were using the service at the time of our inspection.
The service had a registered manager in place. 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 four breaches of regulations during this inspection. There were not enough staff working at the service and staff did not receive one to one supervision in line with the provider’s policy. Medicine records were not always completed accurately. Quality assurance and monitoring systems did not always identify issues of concern at the service You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this report.
The service had safeguarding procedures in place to help protect people from the risk of abuse. Risk assessments were in place which set out how to support people in a safe manner. Robust staff recruitment procedures were in place to help ensure suitable staff were employed.
Staff undertook an induction training programme on commencing work at the service and received on-going training after that. People were able to make choices for themselves where they had the capacity to do so and the service operated within the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Where people were supported with food preparation they were able to choose what they ate and drank. People were supported to access relevant health care professionals.
People told us they were treated with respect and that staff were caring. Staff had a good understanding of how to promote people’s privacy, independence and dignity.
People’s needs were assessed before they began using the service. Care plans were in place which set out how to meet people’s individual needs. The service had a complaints procedure in place and people knew how to make a complaint.
Staff and people spoke positively about the registered manager. Systems were in place to seek the views of people on the running of the service.