Silverbell Care

Updated 10 August 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.

This inspection site visit took place on 13 July 2018, along with calls to people and relatives, calls to people took place on 10 and 11 July 2018 and calls to staff on 16 and 17 July 2018. The inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to make sure someone was in. The inspection team consisted of one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

As part of the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service, including notifications. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about. We asked for feedback from the commissioners of people's care to find out their views on the quality of the service. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection, we spoke with 15 people who used the service and two relatives. We also spoke with the registered manager, a director, and six staff.

We reviewed the care records of three people and three staff files, which included pre-employment checks and training records. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service including staff rotas, call logs, compliment and complaint logs, audits, and medicine administration records.

Updated 10 August 2018

This inspection site visit took place on 13 July 2018.

At our last inspection on 9 and 13 February 2017 we found improvements were needed to safe recruitment practices, how competency checks and training for staff were carried out, quality checks were not effective and feedback on the service was not used to make improvements. At this inspection we found the provider had made the required improvements but more were needed to ensure people could have the support they wanted at the time they preferred.

SLR care is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. At the time of our inspection there were 43 people using the service.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People were not always able to have their preferred call times, although steps were being taken to address this. People’s preferences were understood by staff. However, the detail was not always recorded in peoples care plans.

People were safeguarded from abuse and there were plans in place to minimise risks to their safety. Medicines were administered safely to people by trained staff. People were protected from the risk of cross infection. The registered manager had systems in place to learn when things went wrong.

People had their needs assessed; and care plans were in place to guide staff to provide care and support. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff were aware of how to support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service were supportive of this practice. People received support to maintain a healthy diet and were supported to maintain and monitor their health and well-being. People received consistent care from staff that understood their needs and preferences.

People were supported by caring staff that protected their privacy and dignity. People had their communication needs assessed and plans were in place to meet those needs. People had support to make decisions and choices about their care and maintain their independence.

People understood how to make a complaint. The service was not supporting people with end of life care. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and these were used to drive improvements. A registered manager was in post; and people, relatives and staff were able to approach the registered manager.