9 May 2017
During a routine inspection
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 (CQC) 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 did not always receive their support at the times they needed it and from consistent staff. The registered manager was aware that there were insufficient staff and was taking action to recruit new staff. People were supported by safely recruited staff that understood how to safeguard them from potential abuse. People medicines were administered safely.
People told us they thought staff had the skills required to support them. Staff had the knowledge to support people effectively and received updates to their training on a regular basis. People told us staff always sought their consent to care and treatment and staff could explain how to apply the principles of the Mental Capacity Act. People received support from staff to maintain a healthy diet and they told us staff enabled them to choose what they had to eat and drink. People received support to monitor their health and access health professionals when they needed to.
People had support from kind polite and caring staff. People were supported to make decisions about all aspects of their care and support and staff enabled them to choose things for themselves. People were supported in a way which maintained their independence. Staff encouraged people to do things for themselves where they were able. Staff supported people in a way which maintained their privacy and dignity when providing care and support.
People told us they were involved in their assessments and care planning and their needs were reviewed on a regular basis. People told us that staff understood their preferences for how care and support was delivered. People knew how to complain and there were systems in place to ensure complaints were appropriately investigated and responded to.
The registered manager had systems in place to check the quality of the service and ensure people’s needs had been met; however these were not always effective. Staff were not always using the systems consistently which enabled the registered manager to monitor call delivery times. People felt they could approach the management team and were able to influence how the service was delivered. Staff felt they were supported by the management team and the registered manager had systems in place to provide effective support for staff. People had opportunities to provide feedback about the quality of the service, and these had led to the registered manager taking action to make improvements.