Archived: Unique Superior Care Limited

Unique Superior Care Ltd provides personal care and support to people in their own home. At the time of this inspection there were nine people using the service.

The service was last inspected on 25 January 2016. At that inspection we found that improvements had been made regarding the outcomes of safe, effective, responsive and well led to fully meet with regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. After that inspection the report remained as an overall outcome of Requires Improvement. This was to allow time for the provider to demonstrate that their new systems were sustainable and robust enough to maintain an acceptable standard. At this inspection we found that previous standards had been maintained.

The service had a registered manager. 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 using the service told us that they felt safe. This was because they trusted staff and felt that they knew their responsibility to keep people safe from harm and abuse.

Risks associated with people’s care had been fully assessed and managed to protect people from harm. The registered manager assessed people’s needs and used this to ensure the correct numbers of staff provided care and support for people. There were improvements being made to strengthen the information for staff action.

Staff had regular training that provided them with the relevant skills they required to meet people’s needs. The provider completed all appropriate background checks that ensured staff had the right skills and were safe to support people. Appropriate numbers of staff supported people appropriately following an assessment of needs.

People were supported in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005. Staff asked for people’s consent to their care and treatment.

Staff supported people to eat sufficient and appropriate meals to sustain their health and well-being.

Staff were kind and treated people with dignity and respect.

Care was centred on people’s individual needs and choices,. Their care plans did not always accurately reflect their changing support needs.

The provider listened to feedback from people using the service and their relatives. People told us that staff acted promptly on their feedback.

The provider had procedures for monitoring and assessing the quality of the service being delivered. The provider had effective procedures to monitor and assess the service in a way that assisted with continued improvements.

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 1 September 2015. Breaches of legal requirements were found. After the comprehensive inspection, the provider wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to safe care and treatment, person centred care and staffing.

We undertook this focused inspection to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our finding in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Unique Superior Care on website at www.cqc.org.uk. The requirements in relation to delivering safe care and treatment by using risk assessments that identified risks, but did not set out how to manage those risks. This was a breach of regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Recruitment procedures were not robust in the first few weeks of the history of the service and there were not enough care workers to ensure that people received home care visits at times they expected. This was a breach of regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

People’s care plans were not detailed enough to provide staff with the information they needed to fully meet the needs of people in the way they preferred. This was a breach of regulation 9 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Following that inspection the provider sent us an action plan to tell us the improvements they were going to make

All the regulations are now being met. We found that there were areas that still required improvement.

Unique Superior Care is a home care agency that provides personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection eight people used the service.

The service had a registered manager. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The people we spoke with who used the service told us that they felt safe when staff provided support or care. Relatives we spoke with also agreed with this. However, we found that not everyone received calls at the time that had been agreed. Whilst we saw records that contained checks on visits to a person’s home, not all missed or late calls had been identified in time for this to be addressed.

The staff team knew their responsibilities for keeping people safe from harm, they had undertaken safeguarding training and incidents were dealt with promptly by the manager.

The risks associated with people’s care and support had been assessed and actions had been taken to minimise such risks.

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Checks had been carried out when new members of staff had been employed. This was to check that they were suitable to work at the service. The staff team had received training relevant to their role within the service and on- going support had been provided.

The people using the service felt supported by staff and felt that they were able to speak with the manager when they had any issues to discuss.

There were systems in place to monitor the service being provided, though these had not always been effective in identifying shortfalls, particularly with regard to the times that staff had been required to be at a person’s home.