23 January 2017
During a routine inspection
A registered manager was 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
Risk assessments were not consistently in place to protect people from risks to their health and welfare. Staff recruitment checks were not fully in place to protect people from receiving personal care from unsuitable staff.
The relative we spoke with told us they thought the service ensured that their family member received safe personal care. Staff had been trained in safeguarding (protecting people from abuse) and staff understood their responsibilities in this area. The relative told us that medicines had been prompted so that they were supplied safely and on time, to protect the person's health needs.
Staff had not received comprehensive training to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to be able to meet people's needs.
The staff member spoken with had, in the main, understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) to allow, as much as possible, people to have effective choices about how they lived their lives.
People and relatives we spoke with told us that staff were friendly, kind, positive and caring. The person using the service on their relative had been involved in making decisions about how and what personal care was needed to meet their needs.
Care plans, in the main, reflected the person's individual needs to ensure they could be met, though more information was needed on their preferences to ensure staff were aware of how to provide a fully individual service.
The relative spoken with told us they would tell staff or management if they had any concerns and they were confident these would be properly followed up.
People and their relatives were satisfied with how the service was run and staff felt they were supported in their work by the registered manager.
The registered manager was introducing a system to carry out audits in order to check that the service was fully meeting people's needs and to ensure a quality service was always provided.