Archived: The Lady Verdin Trust - Daily Options

Daily Options is part of the Lady Verdin Trust and is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own home, with their family or in other residential accommodation such as a care home. The office is located in the centre of Crewe. Plans were on-going plans for the service to merge with another provider, Choice Support.

Not everyone using Daily Options received regulated activity; 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. Of the 62 people receiving support from Daily options at the time of the inspection, only seven were receiving 'personal care'. Because of this we focussed our inspection on people who received personal care.

At the last inspection we rated the service as good and, at this inspection we found the service remained Good. This report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.

The service maintained effective systems to safeguard people from abuse and individual risk was fully assessed and reviewed. People were supported by enough staff to meet their needs and in a caring and compassionate way. People’s dignity, privacy, human rights and right to be as independent as they could be were maintained. When required, people were assisted with their medicines safely.

We saw evidence that the service learned from accidents and/or incidents and that steps were taken to prevent them happening again.

Staff had the training and skills needed to meet people’s needs and were supported by a management team in order to complete their role effectively.

People had care and support plans that were personal to them and reflected their individual needs and preferences. Staff knew people’s support needs well and assisted them in the manner they preferred. The provider had systems in place to enable people and their relatives or representatives to give their views. These included a system for recording and responding to complaints, meetings, regular contact, review and a service questionnaire.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that as far as possible people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible.

We saw that the service was working within the principles of the MCA and that information within care records, observations and staff knowledge supported this. The registered manager had identified that documentation to record assessment of a person’s mental capacity, recording of best interest decision making and consent needed to be improved and was working with the provider to source new documentation.

Staff spoke positively about the provider and management of the service including the approachability of senior staff.

Daily Options worked effectively with other agencies including other care providers involved in people’s care, social workers and supported people to attend appointments to health care services as and when needed.

Quality assurance systems were in place. A variety of audits were carried out and used to drive improvement.

Further information can be found in the detailed findings included in the full report of this inspection.

Daily Options is part of the Lady Verdin Trust and is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own home, with their family or in other residential accommodation such as a care home. The office is located in the centre of Crewe.

At the time of the inspection 62 people were receiving a service from Daily Options, of these only seven were receiving any personal care. The remaining 55 people were only provided with support to participate in other activities, this could be anything from helping people to budget their finances, accompany on visits, for example a hospital appointment, support with social activities or to help maintain a hobby. This element of the service although provided by Daily Options would not need to be registered with the Commission if this was their sole purpose. Because of this we have focussed our inspection on the seven people in receipt of personal care only.

Daily Options 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.

The registered manager, (their job title within the organisation was community services director) was based in the office and had oversight of the service. Day to day management in the settings where support was provided was undertaken by two community support managers and support managers who each had responsibility for a number of properties.

Because of their communication needs we were unable to ask the people receiving a service about whether they thought the staff members supporting them were caring. We did however speak to four family members of the people and they were very positive about the staff members and their ability to care for their relatives.

The service had a range of policies and procedures which helped staff refer to good practice and included guidance on the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This meant that the staff members were aware of people's rights to make their own decisions. They were also aware of the need to protect people's rights if they had difficulty in making decisions for themselves.

We asked staff members about training and they confirmed that they received regular training throughout the year, they described this as their CPD [continuous professional development] training and that it was up to date.

We looked at three people’s care folders in the office and two during the home visits undertaken [we looked at one person’s file in both the office and during a home visit]. Both explained what was important to the individual and how best to support them. This helped to ensure that people’s needs continued to be met.

Staff members we spoke with were positive about how the service was being managed. During the two home visits we observed them interacting with the people they were supporting in a professional, caring and friendly manner. All of the staff members and relatives we spoke with were positive about the service and the quality of the support being provided.

We found that the provider used a variety of methods in order to assess the quality of the service they were providing to people. These included regular audits on areas such as the care files, including risk assessments and staff training. The records were being maintained properly.