17 May 2017
During a routine inspection
MacIntyre Care is a national charity providing support to people with learning disabilities. This service provided a personal care service to 25 people from a registered office in Totton Southampton. All of the people being supported by the service lived in their own home. Some people lived alone, whilst others lived in shared houses or supported living settings across Hampshire. The levels of support provided varied. Some received just a few hours support from an outreach service, whilst others received 24 hour care and had more complex health and social care needs.
The service did not have a registered manager. The previous registered manager had left the service in February 2017. A new manager had been appointed and was due to start in June 2017. 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. When in post the registered manager was supported by a number of front line managers, or heads of service, who had delegated day to day responsibility for managing the delivery of care within people’s homes.
Recruitment practices needed to be more robust to ensure that all of the relevant checks were completed. Full employment histories had not been obtained for two staff members. This information has now been obtained. There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people’s needs.
Medicines were managed safely. Systems were in place to respond to and learn from medicines errors and medicines audits were undertaken to ensure medicines were being managed safely.
People told us they felt safe and there were systems and processes in place to protect them from harm. Care plans contained risk assessments and risk management plans.
Staff received a comprehensive induction which involved learning about the values of the service, the needs of people using the service and key policies and procedures. A comprehensive training programme was available and plans were in place to ensure that all staff refreshed their training in a timely manner.
Where necessary staff had undertaken mental capacity assessments to determine whether people could consent to the care and support being provided. Staff used a restrictions checklist to identify whether the care arrangements in place might in some cases amount to a deprivation of people’s liberty in order to protect them from harm. Where this was the case, action had been taken to notify the Local Authority so that they could seek the relevant authorisations from the Court of Protection.
People were supported to have enough to eat and drink and their care plans included information about their dietary needs and risks in relation to nutrition and hydration.
Where necessary staff had worked effectively with a range of other healthcare professionals to help ensure that people’s health care needs were met.
People told us that the staff supporting them were kind and caring and helped them to live a busy and active life. Staff had a good knowledge and understanding of the people they were supporting. Staff were able to tell us about people’s likes and dislikes which demonstrated they knew them well.
Care records were person centred and helped staff provide care which was in keeping with people’s needs and wishes.
People were provided with opportunities to give feedback about the care and support they received. Complaints policies and procedures were in place.
Systems were in place to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service and to ensure people were receiving the best possible support.