Archived: 45 The Beeches

Updated 13 February 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

We inspected the service between 18 October 2017 and 7 December 2017 and the inspection was announced. We gave the service short notice of both site visits on 18 October and 7 December 2017 to ensure that the registered manager was available as they often support the people they care for so may not have been in the office. We made telephone contact with the people who used the service, their relatives and one member of staff on 8 and 21 November 2017. We also visited one person together with their relative on 27 November 2017. Two inspectors carried out the inspection on both 18 October 2017 and 7 December 2017. This was the service’s first inspection.

Before the inspection we reviewed information that we hold about the service such as safeguarding information and notifications. Notifications are the events happening in the service that the provider is required to tell us about. We used this information to plan what areas we were going to focus on during our inspection.

We spoke with both people using the service and three of their relatives, two care workers and the registered manager. We also received emails from two care workers telling us about their experience of working for the service. We reviewed two people’s care files, four staff recruitment and support records. We also looked at a sample of the service’s policies, audits, training records, staff rotas and complaint records.

Updated 13 February 2018

The Inspection took place over a six-week period between 18 October 2017 and 7 December 2017. There were two people using the service at the time of the inspection.

45 The Beeches is a domiciliary care agency and is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older people, some of whom may be living with dementia and people living with mental health conditions, and/or a physical disability. It also provides a service to people who are living with learning disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorder.

The registered manager is also the registered provider. 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 service was in breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This related to Regulation 19 Fit and Proper Persons Employed. The registered manager/provider did not have robust recruitment checks in place as required in Schedule 3, and had not followed their own recruitment policy. This placed people at risk of being supported by unsuitable care workers.

Although there was a quality assurance system in place, it was not effective, as the registered manager/provider had not carried out thorough quality assurance checks such as in the recruitment process and of audits of the service’s systems and practices. The service needs to make improvements to its quality assurance systems.

People told us they felt safe with their care workers and they had risk assessments and management plans in place to minimise any risks. They were happy with the care they received and told us the service responded to their needs appropriately. There were sufficient care workers to meet people’s needs. People told us that their care workers had never let them down and informed them if they were delayed. We were unable to fully assess the service's medication arrangements as people undertook this task independently. There was a policy and procedure in place and appropriate forms for completion should this change.

Care workers had received training and they told us they had regular supervision. People felt that their care workers knew how to care for them and were kind, caring and respectful. The service worked in line with other legislation such as the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) to ensure that people had as much choice and control over their lives as possible. People currently using the service did not require support with meals or healthcare. However, there were appropriate forms in place to record any support provided including food, fluid and weight monitoring charts.

People’s care needs had been holistically assessed and as their needs changed their care plans were updated to enable care workers to care for them correctly. People were supported to maintain their independence and received personalised care that was responsive to their changing needs. People felt that the service would be responsive to their concerns and complaints and would resolve them to their satisfaction. The registered manager/provider told us they learn from any complaints and make changes to ensure that people received an improved service. Confidential information was stored safely in line with data security standards.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.