Archived: Care and Support Tameside

Aspire Tameside has offices in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside and provides care and support to disabled children and adults living in their own accommodation in the surrounding Tameside area. At the time of the inspection there were 12 children and no adults receiving care from the service.

There was a registered manager at the service. 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.

The recruitment process was robust, helping ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable adults and children. There was an appropriate safeguarding policy and procedure in place for both adults and children and staff demonstrated a good knowledge of safeguarding.

Staff had undertaken infection control training and were supplied with appropriate equipment to help prevent the spread of infection. Medicines systems were safe.

Appropriate risk assessments were in place. Accidents and incidents were recorded and appropriate actions were taken.

There was an appropriate induction programme in place and further training and refresher courses were undertaken by all staff.

Staff we spoke with demonstrated the skills and values required to do the job required of them. Care files included relevant information to assist staff to meet identified needs.

The service ensured they considered people’s best interests when delivering support.

Relatives we spoke with were positive about the care received by their loved ones. People we spoke with particularly appreciated the consistency of carers

Independence was promoted and people who used the service were encouraged to do what they could for themselves. There was a service users’ information booklet given to potential users of the service.

Staff we spoke with were aware of the importance of confidentiality and respected people’s dignity.

Care plans evidenced person-centred care and included relevant information about people’s likes, dislikes, preferences and background. The care plans were reviewed and updated regularly.

People who used the service were supported to undertake activities and events that they enjoyed and had expressed a wish to do. The service were able to respond promptly to requests for a change in care delivery.

There was an appropriate complaints policy and procedure. Concerns were addressed appropriately and the service had received a number of compliments.

Relatives told us the management were approachable. Staff said they were well supported. Staff supervisions and appraisals were undertaken regularly. Staff meetings took place but attendance was low.

The service carried out regular checks on staff competence to help ensure staff skills and knowledge remained current and relevant. Any shortfalls were addressed via training and/or supervision.

There were systems in place to audit the quality of service delivery. An action plan was produced following the quality monitoring to address any concerns raised.

This inspection took place on 19 and 20 October 2016 and was announced. We gave the service notice of our inspection to enable them to organise suitable staff cover to assist with the inspection process. We followed up our site visit with telephone calls to some staff and parents of children who use the service.

The service had been registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) since October 2014 and this was the service’s first inspection.

Aspire Tameside has offices in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside and provides care and support to disabled children and adults living in their own accommodation in the surrounding Tameside area. At the time of our inspection Aspire Tameside was providing a service to 29 children and one adult. The service provided support to people with cerebral palsy, autism and physical disability. Care was delivered in small packages, providing a number of hours support per week. The service was also commissioned to provide respite support, to enable carers to have a regular break from their caring duties.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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.

We identified breaches of three regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These breaches were in relation to the safe recruitment of staff, staff training and the management of the service. We are considering our options in relation to enforcement for some of these breaches of the regulations and will update the section at the back of this report once any action has been concluded.

Parents of children who use the service spoke highly of the service; one person told us, “They’re brilliant.”

We found management and staff spoke highly of the children and adults they provided a service to and told us how much they enjoyed their caring role. Parents of the children we spoke with told us their support workers were always kind and caring.

The staff files we looked at showed us that safe and appropriate recruitment and selection practices had not always been used to ensure that suitable staff were employed to care for children and adults who may be vulnerable. We found concerns around a lack of evidence of the suitability of some staff and we told the service to ensure these staff did not work with children until these checks had been verified.

Staff we spoke with were aware how to safeguard children and adults and were able to demonstrate their knowledge around safeguarding procedures and how to inform the relevant authorities if they suspected anyone was at risk from harm.

Staff told us they supported the same children each week and this was confirmed when speaking to parents of children who used the service. This consistency in care staff visits meant that children and staff were able to develop relationships and staff knew the children they were supporting well.

Care files we looked at showed concise plans and risk assessments documenting children and adult’s specific care and support needs. These were short plans outlining how children and adults needed to be cared for in an effective, safe and personalised way. The plans included information around people’s preferences. We found these care files were not regularly reviewed in a comprehensive way; meaning that there was a risk that information in the files may not be current and up-to-date to ensure children and adults received the correct care and support.

There was no effective monitoring and auditing system in place to ensure the registered manager had a full oversight of the service.