Human Support Group Limited - Doncaster

Human Support Group Limited - Doncaster is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 70 people were using the service. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

Risks posed to people were assessed and mitigated. Staff completed daily records, which evidenced support was provided to people safely. People told us they felt safe. Systems and processes were in place to protect people from the risk of abuse and harm. Medicines were safely managed. Staff were recruited safely and pre-employment checks were in place. Accidents and incidents were monitored, with lessons learned to mitigate risks posed to people.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Right Care

Care plans were person centred and staff had access to these via an online system. However, some care records required updating to reflect people’s current needs and preferences. Staff were trained and knowledgeable about people's support needs. Systems in place to effectively manage complaints or concerns were not always robust. Some people and some staff told us care calls were rushed, this was raised with the registered manager and not effectively resolved. Quality assurance systems were in place. Feedback was sought from people using the service and records evidenced an overall positive experience for people. People and relatives told us staff were kind and caring.

Right Culture

The registered manager and staff team understood their roles and responsibilities. People and relatives told us the service was well led and they could contact the office staff if they required support. Staff told us they felt supported by the registered manager. Staff received regular supervisions, attended regular meetings and staff initiatives were in place. Audit systems were in place, which included staff spot checks, staff interactions with people, infection control, medicines and safeguarding. The provider had overarching governance systems in place and quality checks showed high levels of compliance.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 23 November 2017).

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Human Support Group Limited - Doncaster on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation the provider reviews their systems for auditing and updating care records.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

The inspection took place on 18 October 2017 with the registered provider being given short notice of the visit to the office in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. The service was previously inspected in October 2015 when no breaches of legal requirements were identified and the service was given a rating of ‘Good’ with a rating of requires improvement in Well Led. At this inspection we found the service remained ‘Good’ with a rating of requires improvement in Responsive.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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.

People we spoke with spoke positively about the quality of the care and support care they received from staff. They told us they treated them with respect and cared for them in a way which met their needs and took into consideration their wishes and preferences.

There were systems in place to reduce the risk of abuse, and to assess and monitor potential risks to individual people. The registered provider acted appropriately where people were suspected to be at risk of harm. For instance, we saw potential risks to people had been assessed to ensure the environment was safe for people to live and work in, and that people were able to move around their homes safely.

People’s needs had been assessed before their care package commenced and where possible they, and the relatives if appropriate, had been involved in formulating their support plans. Records identified people’s needs and preferences in satisfactory detail, but information gathered in assessment tools and recent changes had occasionally not been fully incorporated into the plans of care. However, we found no evidence to show this had a negative impact on the people receiving care.

People were encouraged to manage their own medication if they were able to, and some people were supported by their close family. However, when assistance was required to ensure people received the correct medication, appropriate levels of support were provided by staff who had been trained to carry out this role.

Recruitment processes were thorough, which helped the employer make safer recruitment decisions when employing new staff. There was sufficient trained and experienced staff employed to ensure people received support from staff who knew them well. People we spoke with confirmed they received consistent support from the same care team.

People were enabled to raise any concerns or complaints. The complaints procedure told people how to raise a concern and how it would be addressed. People we spoke with said they had not made any complaints, but were confident that any concerns they raised would be dealt with swiftly by the registered manager.

The registered manager knew the people who were being supported very well and could clearly tell us about their needs and abilities. They also had a good overview of the areas staff covered and the capabilities to accept additional care packages.

People were encouraged to share their views about the quality of the care provided, to help drive up standards and influence change. Systems were in place to monitor how the service operated and identify areas for improvement. This also gave the service an opportunity to learn from events and improve the service for people.