Background to this inspection
Updated
1 June 2018
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service,and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
This inspection took place on 16 and 17 April 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is a domiciliary care service and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
Inspection site visit activity started on 16 April 2018 and ended on 17 April 2018. It included telephone calls to people, their relatives and staff on the 16 and 17 April 2018. We visited the office location on 17 April 2018 to see the manager and office staff; to review care records and policies and procedures and visit people in their own homes.
The inspection was carried out by one inspector and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We also viewed other information such as information reported to us, questionnaires which had been completed by twelve people using the service, six relatives of people and seven staff.
We reviewed notifications that the provider had sent us. Notifications are specific events and incidents that occur within the service that the provider is required to notify us about. We contacted local authority commissioners, responsible for funding some of the people using the service, to gain their views of the service.
During this inspection we spoke with the registered manager, who was also the provider, the care co-ordinator and four care staff. We also spoke with three people and three relatives by telephone and visited three people in their own homes.
We reviewed four people's care plans and records to see if people were receiving the care they needed. We sampled four staff files and looked at training and recruitment processes. We looked at the provider's quality assurance and audit records to see how they monitored the quality of the service and other records related to the day-to-day running of the service.
Following the inspection, we asked the provider to send us information about key policies and procedures and they did this in a timely manner.
Updated
1 June 2018
This inspection took place on 16 and 17 April and was announced.
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community in and around the Lutterworth area. It provides a service to older people, people with physical disabilities and younger adults.
CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection, there were 42 people using the service.
The service had a registered manager in post who was also the registered provider. 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.
At our last inspection in March 2016 we rated the service Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of Good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on-going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.
Why the service remains Good.
People remained safe using the service. People were protected by safe recruitment procedures to help ensure staff were suitable to work with people using care and support services. Staff were knowledgeable about the risks people faced and took action to reduce risks. Further development of risk assessment records would ensure all staff had the information and guidance they needed to keep people safe. We observed there were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people's care needs and this was confirmed by staff we spoke with.
People's medicines were managed safely. Staff received medicines training and understood the importance of safe administration; improved procedures and systems were planned to ensure records were always completed consistently.
People received care from staff who had the skills and knowledge required to effectively support them. Staff had completed a range of training, including induction into the service and specialist training to enable them to meet people's needs.
People's human rights were protected because the registered manager and staff had an understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). People's nutritional needs were met because staff followed people's care plans to make sure people were eating and drinking enough, and potential risks were known. People were supported to access health care professionals to maintain their health and wellbeing.
People continued to receive a service that was caring. Staff showed kindness and compassion for people through their conversations and interactions. The provider ensured staff had sufficient time to provide the care people needed. Staff supported people to communicate and be involved in the planning and provision of their care.
People received information in a format suitable for their individual needs. Staff understood and promoted people's rights, including their right to be treated with respect and dignity.
The service remained responsive to people's individual needs and provided personalised care and support. People were supported to make choices about their care and how they wanted it to be provided. The provider had a complaints policy in place and systems to respond and investigate concerns and complaints. The registered manager took concerns seriously and used these to bring about improvements in the service.
The service continued to be well led. People used a service where the registered provider's values and vision were embedded into the service, staff and culture. Staff told us the registered manager was approachable, supportive and made themselves available,
The provider had systems in place to monitor, assess and improve the service. There was an open culture and people and staff felt able to share their views, which were used to develop the service. Staff were positive and happy in their jobs. There was a clear leadership and organisational structure in place which provided the guidance staff needed in their roles.
Further information is in the detailed findings below.