Archived: Homecare Southlodge

On the day of our inspection there were four people who used the service. Three had commenced using the service in 2013, two of whom started in December 2013. Only one person who used the service was able to talk to us.

One person told us that the manager visited them to undertake an assessment of their needs before they started to use the service. They told us that a care plan had been written with them. They told us, “I know what is in my care plan.”

One person who used the service told us they always felt safe with staff who visited them. They told us, “I have the same member of staff visiting me. She is just like a daughter to me.” Relatives told us that staff were very good and they had no concerns in relation to how their family members were treated by staff.

People and relatives told us that they believed the staff were trained as they knew what they were doing.

People who used the service and their relatives told us they knew how to make a complaint. One person told us, “I would talk to the manager if I needed to make a complaint.”

We spoke with one person who had received a service, one member of staff and the registered manager. During our visit we looked at the current person’s records and two past client records as well as staff records. We found that there were several areas of concern.

There was a local safeguarding policy but staff were unaware of the how to identify potential abuse and refer to the appropriate authority.

Staff confirmed that they communicated with the manager regularly but we saw no records of supervision and appraisal. There was no evidence of training, with the exception of one staff member who had attended safeguarding training in their induction.

We saw that there was a complaints policy but that complaints were not formally recorded so it was not clear whether complaints had been resolved.

We saw that care records were not up to date and the provider was unable to show us any risk assessments. They told us that these were in people's homes.

However, we spoke with one person who received a service who told us, “I can’t fault the staff. The two girls were very good” and “They treated me with dignity and respect”.