Archived: Allied Healthcare Havering

Updated 29 March 2017

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

This inspection was undertaken to check that the provider had made improvements to meet legal requirements after our 9 June 2016 inspection. We inspected the service against one of the five questions we ask about services: Is the service effective? This was because the provider did not provide sufficient training to staff.

This inspection took place on 23 February 2017 and was announced. It was undertaken by one adult social care inspector.

Before our inspection we reviewed information we held about the service and the provider. This included the action plan the provider submitted setting out how they would become compliant with the breach identified at the previous inspection. The registered manager was away on the day of our inspection. We spoke with two service delivery managers, who were deputy managers, a care coordinator and a care worker. We looked at the records of staff induction and training documents, including assessments of staff knowledge.

Updated 29 March 2017

This announced inspection took place on 23 February 2017. The registered manager was given 48 hours' notice because we needed to be sure that members of the management team were available to assist us with the inspection.

At the last inspection on 9 June 2016, we found the service to be in breach of the regulation relating to staff training. We found that care staff did not always receive the training they needed to ensure that they supported people safely and competently. For example, we found some staff had limited understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and there was little evidence that staff had attended any training. This meant that staff did not have sufficient knowledge to effectively support people who lacked capacity to make decisions for themselves.

After the inspection, the registered provider wrote to us to say what actions they would take to meet legal requirements in relation to the breach.

We undertook this announced focused inspection on 23 February 2017 to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report of our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Allied Healthcare Havering on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Allied Healthcare Havering provides personal care to adults and children living in their own homes in different boroughs around London and Essex. At the time of our visit, they were providing personal care to 248 people. The provider had 110 staff in their employment. The provider had recently acquired staff and people that were transferred from another Allied Healthcare branch in London.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

At this inspection, we found the provider had taken sufficient action to ensure staff received appropriate training to carry out the duties they were employed to perform.