20 November 2018
During a routine inspection
People’s experience of using this service:
• People’s visits were not planned to ensure people were safe and staff were rostered to complete one visit before commencing a second.
• Staff were not enabled to complete visits and have time to travel to their next care visit.
• People’s visits were not planned to ensure they received regular visits from staff who knew their care preferences.
• Staff were trained to administer medicines; however, people were not always assisted to have their medicines at the prescribed time.
• People received care and support based on their individual assessed needs and preferences.
• People had a care plan which detailed the risks involved in people’s personal care.
• People were supported by staff to maintain plenty of fluids, however, some staff struggled to produce some meals for people. The provider ensured that staff received training based on people’s individual needs. Staff worked well to ensure people were supported to access health services and people were involved and encouraged to make decisions about the care offered.
• People were treated with kindness and were positive about the staff’s caring attitude. People were encouraged to express their views and make decisions about the care they received. People told us they felt staff treated them with respect and dignity and encouraged them to maintain their independence for as long as possible.
• Staff did not always understand the needs of people, and some staff were unable to communicate efficiently.
• We found some of the provider's quality assurance systems needed improvement as they did not identify all the shortfalls in records. The registered manager understood their legal responsibility for notifying the Care Quality Commission of incidents that involved the people who received a care service. Some people and people’s relatives had been given the opportunity to comment on the service by a written questionnaire and telephone surveys.
Rating at last inspection: The agency was rated as Good at the last inspection in October 2016.
Why we inspected: We brought forward this inspection from the normal schedule, due to concerning information from the local authority.
Enforcement: Action provider needs to take is included at the end of this report.
Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated ‘Requires Improvement.’