Archived: Community Voice Ltd Oldham

Updated 15 December 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 was planned to check 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 17 and 20 October 2016 with telephone calls to people using the service being conducted on 21 October 2016. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager or other responsible person would be available to assist with the inspection process. We also needed to be sure our visit did not impact on the day-to-day running of the service. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Community Voice Ltd Oldham provides support and personal care to people living in their own homes within the Oldham area. The registered office of the service is located at Albert Street, Oldham. At the time of our inspection the service was providing support to 63 people.

Before the inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service. On this occasion we did not ask the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We sought feedback about the service from one local authority that used the services of Community Voice Ltd Oldham and Oldham Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the view of the public about health and social care services in England. Feedback from both agencies informed us that no concerns about this service had been received.

During our visit we spoke with the registered manager, area manager, two care coordinators, one administrator and three care support workers. We examined care records for six people who used the service, medicine administration records, six staff personnel files, training certificates and records relating to the management of the service such as methods to monitor the quality of service delivery. On 21 October we spoke with five people who used the service in order to obtain their views and opinions about the service they received.

Throughout this report the care support workers are referred to as ‘care staff’.

Updated 15 December 2016

Community Voice Ltd Oldham provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes. This inspection took place on 17 and 20 October 2016 with telephone calls to people using the service being conducted on 21 October 2016. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of our visit on 17 October to make sure they or the registered manager was available to assist us with the inspection process and to provide us with access to records. This was the first inspection of Community Voice Ltd Oldham at this location.

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. 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 the time of our inspection there were 61 people who used the services of the agency and people we spoke with expressed satisfaction with the care and support they were receiving from Community Voice Ltd Oldham. People told us that staff were kind and considerate and respected their privacy and promoted their independence, for example, one person told us, “I do as much as I can for myself, I like to keep independent and the girls [care workers] understand that.”

All the people we spoke with felt the care and support they received was positive and met their assessed needs. People said they felt safe or ‘very safe’ with the care staff when in their homes and they also felt they could trust the staff.

People using the service told us that the care workers always informed them of what they were doing and care plans seen contained information to support staff in making sure people’s privacy and dignity was maintained.

Care plans seen were person centred and indicated the persons involvement in the planning of their care. Records indicated that people, and where appropriate, their relatives or named advocate had been involved in the care planning and review process.

People were protected from harm and abuse due to the arrangements in place to make sure risks to people that used the service was reduced. Risk assessments had been completed and put in place to help people and staff to reduce and manage any known risks.

Staff had been employed using a robust system of recruitment and selection and enough staff were employed to provide the support people required. Where people required assistance to take their medicines, arrangements were in place to provide this support safely and training was provided to staff that enabled them to support and meet the needs of the people who used the service.

All new care staff completed an induction to the service that lasted for two weeks, followed by on-going support from experienced staff. Time was also spent in the community shadowing experienced staff. This helped new staff to provide people with a consistent service.

There were sufficient numbers of care staff who received training and support to meet the needs of the people who used the service.

Care staff we spoke with were able to give us plenty of background details of the needs of individual people they supported in the community.

A complaints procedure was in place and records seen indicated that people’s concerns and complaints were listened to, acted upon and the outcome used as a learning tool to improve the service.

Regular telephone calls were made by members of the senior team to people who used the service to make sure they were happy with the service they were receiving. People told us they appreciated such calls and felt they were being included in the discussions about their individual care.