Fairfield Playcentre

Fairfield Playcentre provided predominantly support to children to participate in activities, with focus on positive behavioural support with minimal physical care support required. At the time of this inspection there were four children receiving a few hours of support each week.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People's experience of using this service:

The service placed the children and their families at the heart of the support they provided. Each family was provided with support usually for a few hours each week, however the amount of support provided was flexible and based on each child and their family’s current circumstances. A relative that contacted us felt their child was safe and although suggesting an improvement for planning summer holiday support, trusted the way the service worked with their child and themselves.

Staff were safely recruited, well trained and supported with core and personalised training programmes, which were geared to the specific needs of children and their families at any given time. Staff were provided with clear guidance about how to report any concerns about neglect or abuse. A local authority commissioner who contacted us said that the service kept children safe. CQC had not received any concerns about the safety or wellbeing of children being supported.

Children were supported safely, and risks regarding their support needs was assessed and met. The service did not administer medicines to anyone and this was made clear to families using the service.

The registered manager regularly kept the standard of the service provided under review along with oversight from the board of trustees of the service.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection in February 2017 the service had been rated as good in all key questions.

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection, based upon the last rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

This inspection took place on 23 February 2017. This was the first inspection of this service.

At the time of our inspection 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 and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider.

We found that there was generally a good level of satisfaction with the way the service worked with children, young people and their families.

The service provided person centred care and support and took into account children’s preferences and worked with families to ensure desired outcomes were met.

Staff could explain how they would recognise and report abuse and received the appropriate training in safeguarding children.

Person centred risk assessments had been undertaken. Plans were put in place to minimise any risks identified to ensure children, young people and staff.

Children currently using the service were being supported by the same staff at each visit who received around six hours per week of support from Fairfield Play Centre. At times requests from relative to have specific times for visits could not be achieved. Recruitment was underway to ensure more care workers were available to meet the needs of children and their families.

The service was registered to support children and young people under the age of 18. At the time of the inspection they were not supporting people over the age of 16 years, therefore the legal requirement to consider people’s mental capacity and ability to make decisions was not required.

Care plans were tailored to children and young people’s unique and individual needs. Communication and methods of providing care and support were described in care plans and appropriate guidance for each person’s needs were in place and were regularly reviewed.

Mandatory training covered the core skills and knowledge required for staff that supported children using the service. The provider had a shared database with other areas of organisation as staff who worked for the service were also employed to work at other play centres.

Staff received supervisions which records showed took place regularly. Staff also sent written updates to the project manager after each weekly visit to children regarding how the session went and to raise any concerns they might have. As the service was in its first year of operation, staff appraisals had been planned to start in April 2017.

Individual care plans included information about the children and young people’s cultural and religious heritage as well as activities they liked, communication needs and guidance about how personal care should be provided.

Children and young people's independence was promoted. Relatives told us and we saw from the care records that children and young people being supported were encouraged to do as much for themselves as possible.

We looked at the complaints record and found that there had been no complaints since the service started supporting children and young people in March 2016. There was a complaints log for recording and dealing with complaints effectively that outlined any actions to be taken as a result of the complaint.

The service had sent its first quality assurance questionnaires out and feedback was due back on the day after the inspection. This was to measure satisfaction for children and their families in order to ensure a high quality service was being delivered. The registered manager was clear that the outcome of the questionnaire would inform the development of the service and lead to improvements if they were identified. Feedback was on-going via regular contact to relatives by the project manager.