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Archived: No 12 Arden Centre

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Unit 12, The Arden Craft Centre, Little Alne, Wootton Wawen, Henley In Arden, West Midlands, B95 6HW

Provided and run by:
Supporting You Services Limited

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Background to this inspection

Updated 22 November 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

We gave the owner 48 hours’ notice that we would be visiting their premises on 11 October 2017 to carry out our inspection. When we arrived on 11 October 2017, no one was available to meet with us. The owners told us communication issues with the office internet and mobile telecommunications meant they failed to receive our communication. The inspection was rearranged and went ahead on 16 October 2017, conducted by one inspector.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked at information received from local authority commissioners. Commissioners are people who work to find appropriate care and support services for people, and fund the care provided. We also looked at statutory notifications sent to us by the service. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law.

Prior to this inspection visit, we asked the provider to send to us a provider information return (PIR). The PIR asked the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. Our records showed that the PIR was unable to be submitted because the email address held for the provider was not correct. We wrote to the provider requesting the PIR to be submitted, but this was not completed and returned. On the day of our inspection visit, the owners acknowledged their contact details needed to be resolved to ensure communications would be received so they could fulfil their legal obligation.

We were unable to speak with the person who used the service as we were told by the registered manager they did not want to speak with us. However, the registered manager said when they asked the person if they wanted to speak with us, the person said they were satisfied with the service they received. During our inspection visit, we spoke with owners, one who was the registered manager, and the other who was a co-owner. (In the report we refer to both these people as registered manager and owner). We reviewed one person’s care plan, to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We looked at other records related to people’s care, and how the service operated to check how the provider gathered information to improve the service. This included medicine records and the provider’s quality assurance audits. During this inspection, we found limited records and evidence that demonstrated how the service effectively operated.

We found a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 22 November 2017

The inspection took place on 16 October 2017 and was announced. No.12 Arden Centre, Supporting You Services, is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes and was registered with us in November 2016. At the time of this inspection, one person received personal care. The two owners of the service provided the person’s care and support alongside working for other providers of care while their own agency became established.

This was the first inspection of this service following registration with us. Before providers are registered, part of our registration process is to check those providing care, are of suitable character and have effective systems and processes to provide people with a service that meets their needs. At this inspection visit we found improvements were needed to their quality assurance systems and how they retained important information that supported their regulatory responsibilities.

One of the owners was the 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.

The owners knew how to keep the person they supported safe. There were processes to minimise risks to the person's and staff safety. They understood how to protect people from the risk of abuse and how to report any concerns.

We found the systems and processes for staff recruitment required further improvements. There was insufficient information for us to check their recruitment process was complete and followed their regulatory responsibilities. Records for themselves were not readily available for us to check.

Training was provided by an external contractor. However neither of the owners had completed training with them, so they were unable to assess the quality of the training, even though they expected their staff (when recruited) to be trained with them. We were unable to see the effectiveness of this training. Both owners had been trained through separate businesses that they worked for. There were no available records that showed what training each owner had completed or when refresher training was planned or completed to show they continued to have up to date knowledge and skills to provide care to people.

The owners understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and the person's consent was sought prior to any care being provided.

There were enough staff to support the person and plans were in place to support extra care packages.

The owners knew the person well and knew how to respond to the person's needs. Care plans and risk assessments contained relevant information for staff to help them provide the care people required. Copies of care plans were available in people’s homes for staff to refer to.

No complaints had been raised with the owners.

Systems to monitor and review the quality of service people received required further improvement. This was to ensure when additional people used the service, supported by more staff, the owner’s quality assurance would identify improvements and demonstrate actions were taken.