Archived: West Moors - Care at Home

West Moors-Care at Home is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. At the time of this inspection 62 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care from the service. 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 and what we found

People felt safe in the care of West Moors - Care at Home. People received their medicines as prescribed. However, we have made a recommendation about the documentation of medicines.

People’s care plans were detailed and kept up to date to ensure they received effective care and support. The service encouraged people to be independent and maintain a safe living environment.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the service did not provide care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support

Staff understood people and their individual needs well. People were supported by appropriate numbers of staff on each visit to ensure their safety and meet their needs. Staff knew people well and provided kind, caring, person-centred care and support.

People received care and support in their own homes, there were appropriate risk assessments in place to support them and maintain their environment. Referrals for specialist equipment and to other organisations such as the fire service were made to ensure people were safe.

Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. Staff supported people with daily living tasks in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible outcomes.

Right Care

The outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support by promoting choice and control, independence and inclusion. Care plans and risk assessments were detailed and person-centred ensuring people were supported to live full, active lives and encourage them to be as independent as possible.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to raise concerns.

Right Culture

There was a positive and open culture at the service , a number of staff members commented on the, 'Open door policy’ and one staff member stated, “There is always somebody from the office there for you day and night.”

The service was well led with a focus on the recruitment, training and development of staff to ensure that people received a safe, caring and responsive service. Staff had confidence in the leadership of the service and felt the service was well led.

Staff demonstrated good understanding around providing people with person centred care and spoke knowledgably about how people preferred their care and support to be given.

The last rating for this service was good (published 18 November 2017).

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

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

West Moors Care at Home is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was providing support to 120 people. The service was run from a location in the centre of West Moors.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

People told us that they received rota’s so that they knew when staff would be visiting, but they were not always told about any changes to these rota’s.

Quality assurance measures were in place but there were some gaps in oversight. The service had plans in place to improve the oversight and ensure that this was consistently robust.

Staff were aware of their responsibilities in protecting people from harm and knew how to report any concerns about people's safety or wellbeing. People had individual risk assessments giving staff the guidance and information they needed to support people safely.

People were supported by staff who were recruited safely and were familiar to them. People and relatives felt that staff had the sufficient skills and knowledge to support them and we saw that staff had access to relevant training for their role. Staff received regular supervision and appraisals and we saw that they also had competency checks to monitor their practice and drive improvements.

Staff understood what support people needed to manage their medicines safely and these were given as prescribed. There were processes in place to audit the accuracy of recording medicines.

Staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act and were able to explain how they considered capacity and consent when they supported people.

Staff understood the communication needs of people they supported and we observed them communicating with people in ways which were meaningful to them.

Where people received support from staff to eat and drink sufficiently, we saw that staff offered choices and prepared foods in the way people liked. People were supported to access a range of professionals where needed, these included dieticians, GP’s and Occupational Therapy.

People were supported by staff who were kind and caring in their approach. Staff respected people’s privacy and information was stored confidentially.

Care plans were person centred and provide details about what was important to people and were regularly reviewed when people’s needs changed.

People and relatives knew how to complain if they needed to and where complaints had been received, these had been recorded and responded to.

Staff were confident in their roles and understood their responsibilities. People and relatives felt that the office was easy to contact and staff were generally helpful. Communication between the office and staff was effective and the registered manager spoke highly about their staff team.