Archived: AJs Homecare Limited

Updated 30 July 2016

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 took place on the 06 June 2016 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of our inspection. This was to ensure the manager would be available to facilitate the inspection. The inspection team consisted of two adult social care inspector’s from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We asked people for their views about the service and facilities provided. During our inspection we spoke with the following people:

•We visited two people who used the service at home and spoke to a further four people by telephone.

• Two relatives by telephone

• 11 members of staff, which included; the managing director, registered manager, deputy manager, care coordinator, six care assistants and a domestic assistant.

We looked at documentation including:

• Six care files and associated documentation

• Staff records including staff rotas, recruitment, training and supervision

• Seven Medication Administration Records (MAR)

• Audits and quality assurance

• Variety of policies and procedures

• Compliments/complaints received

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included notifications regarding safeguarding and incidents, which the provider had informed us about. A notification is information about important events, which the service is required to send us by law. We also looked at the Provider Information Return (PIR), which we had requested the registered manager complete prior to conducting the inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make.

Prior to the inspection, we liaised with the local authority and they raised no issues of concern.

Updated 30 July 2016

This was an announced inspection carried out on 06 June 2016. 48 hours’ notice of the inspection was given so the manager would be available at the office to facilitate our inspection.

AJ’s homecare is a domiciliary care service located near Wigan town centre. The service provides care to people living in their own home. The agency currently provides support to people living within a five mile radius of the office. At the time of the inspection the service provided care and support to 23 people.

The service was last inspected on 14 April 2014 and was meeting all the regulations assessed at that time.

During this inspection we found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 in regards to good governance. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.

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.’

People and their relatives spoke highly of the service and staff. They told us staff visited as near to the scheduled time as possible.

We saw missed visits were analysed and detailed the circumstance why the missed visit had occurred. However, we found the call monitoring system in place was not sufficient to manage the risk or prevent re-occurrence of missed visits.

We reviewed a sample of recruitment records, which demonstrated that staff had been safely and effectively recruited.

The service had appropriate systems and procedures in place which sought to protect people who used the service from abuse. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of local safeguarding procedures and how to raise a concern.

Medicines were managed safely and people did not raise concerns regarding the support received.

The service used a matrix to monitor the training requirements of staff. Staff received an induction, appropriate training and additional specialist training to meet the needs of the person they supported.

Staff had attended mental capacity training and demonstrated a good understanding of people’s needs. Staff sought consent prior to providing care and offered people choices to encourage people to make their own decisions.

People and their relatives told us they were happy with the care provided. People told us staff treated them with dignity and respect and promoted their independence

People engaged with an initial assessment and were involved in the planning of care. Regular reviews were conducted with people, their relatives and a health care professional if involved to continually monitor and adapt care to people’s changing needs.

People received a service user guide on commencement with the service which detailed the complaints procedure. People told us they were confident that if they were required to make a complaint, the management would respond and resolve their issue promptly.

We found there were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided to people which ensured good governance

The management were making changes to the agency which had caused some unrest amongst some of the staff team. We found the management team were transparent, open and honest about the current difficulties they faced. The measures they were undertaking to resolve the issues were required in order to maintain the financial stability of the agency progressing forward.

Without exception, people and their relatives spoke highly of the management and voiced that they would not hesitate to recommend the agency to people needing support in their own home.