28 January 2016
During a routine inspection
Homecare for You Oldham provides personal care and support to adults living in their own homes such as social inclusion, shopping and laundry services. At the time of inspection there were 55 people using 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
We found four breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the report.
People told us that they did not always feel safe when staff supported them. They told us that this depended upon which staff member was supporting them.
People did not receive their medicines safely. Records did not contain important information about the medicines that people were taking and care plans did not show what support people needed with their medicines. This meant that there was a risk that people might not receive the medicines they needed as prescribed by their doctor and there had been occasions when this had happened.
Initial assessments of people’s needs carried out by the local authority detailed information about their care requirements, however this information had not always been transferred when care records had been developed using Homecare for You care plans. This meant there was a risk people might not receive effective care. People’s concerns were not being recognised as complaints and were not investigated appropriately.
Risk assessments were in place which set out how to support people in a safe manner in areas such as moving and handling, nutrition and health and safety however we saw no risk assessments identifying hazards in the environment such as working in people’s home or when out in the community.
The service had safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures in place. Staff were aware of their responsibilities in these areas.
Staff told us that they sought people’s consent prior to providing their care. Where people were assessed not to have the capacity to consent to their care and treatment there was a record of how the care provided had been agreed as required by the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Care workers were supported through training to help them meet the care needs of people they supported appropriately. They undertook an induction programme when they started work at the service.
People told us that some staff were caring but new staff needed to be more caring and compassionate in their work. Staff we spoke with had a good understanding of how to promote people’s dignity however one person told us she needed to remind care staff to ensure dignity was maintained during personal care support.
When people started to use the service a care plan was developed that included details about their care needs and how to meet those needs. Information about peoples likes dislikes and preferences, were included so staff had all of the relevant information to assist them when supporting the person. However the care plans we reviewed were basic and lacked detail of information about the person’s needs.
People felt that they were sometimes rushed by care staff. They told us that the care staff did not always communicate with them and spent time talking to each other using their own language which was not always English.
People told us that they completed a questionnaire to provide feedback on the service. However feedback from this questionnaire was not delivered to care staff or people using the service, or used for the development of the service.
Systems were in place for monitoring the quality of care and support provided. These had not been updated regularly and did not reflect all of the checks that had taken place.
The service had a management structure in place. Some staff told us that they found the management approachable and felt that they were listened to however some care staff and office staff found the manager unapproachable.