Background to this inspection
Updated
22 February 2019
The inspection:
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the registered 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.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by one Adult Social Care Inspector.
Service and service type:
Support Initiatives North West Ltd is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This means that they and the registered provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
What we did:
Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included the statutory notifications sent to us by the registered provider about incidents and events that had occurred at the service. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send to us by law. We also contacted the commissioners of the service to gain their views.
The registered provider had completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the registered provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to formulate a ‘planning tool’; this helped us to identify key areas we needed to focus on during the inspection.
During the inspection we spoke with the registered manager, three members of staff and one person who was receiving support. We also looked at care records belonging to the two people receiving support, recruitment records for five members of staff and other records relating to the management and quality monitoring of the service.
Updated
22 February 2019
About the service:
Support Initiatives North West Ltd is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service operates from the registered address based in Southport. At the time of this inspection two people were using the service.
People’s experience of using this service:
Safe Care and Treatment was not always consistently provided. Risk assessments did not always indicate the level of risk that needed to be managed or how to keep the person safe.
People’s level of risk was not always assessed or reviewed.
Quality assurance processes were not always effectively monitoring the provision of care people received. Audit tools and checks were not always identifying areas of improvement that needed to take place.
Recruitment practices had improved since the last inspection, however pre-employment checks needed to be further strengthened.
People were protected from the risk of harm and abuse. Staff were supported with training in relation to safeguarding and knew how to report any concerns that presented.
At the time of the inspection people did not need support with medication administration. However, the registered provider ensured that staff were enrolled on to the appropriate medication administration training and there was also a medication administration policy in place.
People received support from consistent members of staff who were familiar with their support needs. Staff received training to help develop their skills, knowledge and development.
Staff understood and respected people’s right to make their own decisions and supported people to make choices. People were involved in the decisions that needed to be made and consent was gained in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act, 2005.
People’s privacy, dignity and independence was promoted. Positive relationships had developed between people who received supported and care from staff. We received positive comments about the quality and safety of care people received.
The registered provider had a complaints policy in place; information about the complaints process was provided to people from the outset.
We received positive feedback about the provision of care that was delivered. People also had the opportunity to share their thoughts, opinions and suggestions and the provision of care they received.
Rating at last inspection: Requires Improvement (The last report was published in January 2017)
Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.
You can see what action we told provider to take at the end of report