Community of Refugees from Vietnam - East London

‘Community of Refugees from Vietnam- East London’ service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people from the Vietnamese community living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care to five people.

People’s experience of using this service

The service formed an important part of the local Vietnamese community. People told us they benefited from using a service which understood their culture and spoke their language. People received timely care from consistent care workers that they knew well, and staff understood how to support people with dignity and respect.

People were safeguarded from abuse as care workers were trained in recognising the signs of abuse and knew how to raise concerns. The provider worked to mitigate risks to people’s wellbeing. Medicines were safely managed by staff who understood they were only to prompt, not administer, medicines. There were safer recruitment processes to make sure staff were suitable for their roles.

People’s care needs were assessed and policies and procedures were reviewed to ensure they reflected the law and best practice. Staff received enough training and supervision to carry out their roles. The service helped people to access health services and worked to understand the barriers members of their community faced. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People’s care was planned to meet their needs and care plans were reviewed as needed. The service routinely provided information to people in Vietnamese and English to aid their understanding of the care plans and how to complain if something had gone wrong.

The provider engaged well with people, the wider community and staff to help deliver high quality care. The registered manager visited people regularly to monitor their satisfaction with their care.

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 31 May 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

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

At the last inspection in July 2015 the service was rated “Good”. At this inspection we found the service remained 'Good'.

People told us that they benefitted from a service that provided staff who spoke their language and was provided within their community. People we spoke with told us they felt safe and that staff were punctual and treated them with kindness. Most people had been receiving care from the same care workers for 10 years. Everyone we spoke with was happy with the service which was provided.

People’s care was planned to meet their needs, and this was monitored through the use of personalised daily logs. The provider carried out quarterly reviews and satisfaction surveys to ensure people were happy with their service and that this still met their needs. A summary of care needs and the daily log were provided in Vietnamese, along with information about the service and who to contact in an emergency. Care plans were written in English, but people were happy with the level of information which was provided in their own language.

People were familiar with the registered manager and knew who to speak to if they had a complaint or a concern. There was evidence that people had consented to their care, and the provider had detailed people’s abilities to make choices for themselves. Care plans had clear information on the informal support people received from their families and who was responsible for making sure people’s needs were met.

Staff received regular supervision and appropriate levels of training. Staff we spoke with had received training in safeguarding and recognised signs of abuse, and were aware of how to respond if they had concerns about people’s safety.

The provider had assessed risks to people, but we found in some cases risk assessments lacked detail on how to manage long term health conditions and the risk of falling. We found that people were prompted with their medicines appropriately, but the provider had not always assessed the risks associated with people’s medicines and did not have information on the medicines people took. We have made a recommendation about this.