GN Wellsprings Care Services Ltd

Updated 9 May 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection Team:

One inspector carried out this inspection.

Service and service type:

GN Wellsprings provides a domiciliary care service to people in their own homes. CQC regulates the personal care provided.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

The inspection was announced. The registered manager, who was also the provider, was

given 48 hours' notice because they provide care and support to people in their own homes. We needed to be sure that someone would be available at the office to speak with us.

Inspection site visit activity started on 18 April 2019 and was concluded on 25 April 2019. On 18 April 2019 we visited the office location to speak with the registered manager and to review care records and policies and procedures. On 24 and 25 April 2019 we spoke with relatives of those who received support with personal care and the care staff who provided that support.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as potential abuse, information from the public such as share your experience forms, whistle blowing concerns and information shared with us by local commissioners (who commission services of care). We had not asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return. A PIR is information providers send us to give us key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We therefore gave the provider an opportunity to share with us the improvements they had made since the last inspection visit. We took this into account in making our judgements in this report.

During our inspection office visit we spoke with the registered manager and a business administrator. We reviewed a range of records including three people's care records, medication records and records relating to the management of the service. These included systems for managing any complaints and the provider’s checks on the quality of care provided that assured them they delivered the best service they could. We also looked at systems to manage care calls and daily records to show staff arrived when needed and what support they provided.

Following our inspection office visit we contacted one person, four relatives and five care staff by telephone to get their experiences of what the service was like from their perspective. We were only able to speak with two relatives and two care staff.

Updated 9 May 2019

About the service: GN Wellsprings is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes, including older people and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection visit, the service supported seven people.

People’s experience of using this service:

•Relatives said family members always received visits from consistent staff, at the times arranged.

•Staff was knowledgeable about the risks associated with people's care, but risk management plans had not always been fully completed for those identified risks.

• Staff were recruited safely, and there were enough staff to provide the care and support people needed.

• Safe procedures to manage people's medicines and to prevent the spread of infection were understood and followed by staff.

•People and their relatives made decisions about their care and were supported by staff who understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

•Staff were caring and respected people's right to privacy and dignity.

•Care plans were personalised, but needed more detail to support the person centred care relatives told us people received.

•Staff knew how to keep people protected from poor practice or abuse.

•Staff were keyworkers for people which helped them get to know people well, especially their individual routines and preferences.

•Staff encouraged people to remain as independent as possible by supporting people to do things they could do for themselves.

•The provider’s governance systems were operated and managed effectively to ensure good care outcomes for people that continued to meet their needs.

•The provider had begun to utilise electronic call monitoring and call scheduling to ensure care calls continued to be completed on time. A recommendation for the registered manager was to consider steps to safeguard people’s important information from being accessed unlawfully.

We found the service met the characteristics of a “Good” rating in five areas.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection: Good. The last report for GN Wellsprings was published on (19 October 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned and announced inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The previous ‘good’ service provided to people had remained consistent.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.