Archived: Orchard Care (North East) Limited

The records and care plan formats to be used to record people's health and social care needs were appropriately detailed to capture all the relevant information needed about people's holistic needs.

We saw there were systems in place for effective collaboration with other specialist health and community professional's. For example, care managers, GP's, and local authorities.

We saw an effective complaints system in place for identifying, receiving, handling and responding to complaints and comments made by people who may use the service or those acting on their behalf.

We saw the provider had robust recruitment procedures in place. This meant people who may use the service in the future will receive support from staff who were fit and qualified to meet people's needs.

On the day of our inspection visit, the provider told us they were not currently providing any personal care or support to people living in the community. They said care and support had been provided to one person however this had recently stopped. The business and finance manager told us the organisation planned to continue with this type of service in the near future. We looked at the provider's statement of purpose and their policies and procedures. These showed us arrangements were in place for supporting people to make decisions about their daily lives and preferences and how these would be recorded in their care plans. There was a policy that explained how people would be supported to take appropriate risks to promote as much independence as possible. We saw information about how support staff would deliver personal care in a way that promoted and protected people's privacy and dignity.

Suitable arrangements were in place for handling complaints and for protecting people from abuse. We saw arrangements were in place to provide prospective service users with a service user's guide. We saw this contained information about how to raise a concern or make a complaint.