This inspection was announced and took place on 27 October2016. We gave the provider short notice of the inspection as we needed to make sure we were able to access records and gain permission from people who used the agency to telephone them.The last inspection of the service was carried out on 5 February 2014. No concerns were identified with the care being provided to people at that inspection.
Nightingales Home Care Service is a domiciliary care provider in Swanage, Dorset. Nightingales Home Care provides support to people in their own homes. Nightingales provides help with personal care and domestic tasks. At the time of the inspection they were providing personal care and support for 44 people in their own homes.
There is a registered manager in post. 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 provider of the service was a partnership where one partner was the registered manager with overall responsibility for the service. The partners worked together to co-ordinate the day-to-day running of the service. They worked together when recruiting new staff and making decisions about taking on new work.
People and their relatives were very complimentary about the quality of the service provided and of the management and staff team. They felt the care was exceptionally good. One person told us, “My carer is excellent I look forward to them coming, and I have never been so happy since using Nightingales”. A relative said, “I would comment that the Nightingales standards of care and service is of a very high quality”.
The provider had a clear vision, which was to provide a service which was influenced by the needs and wishes of the people who used it. There was a commitment to providing high quality care which was tailored to people’s individual wishes. Their vision and values were communicated to staff through staff meetings, supervisions and a regular newsletter. People’s views were gathered by regular monitoring visits and phone calls and by satisfaction surveys.
People had positive relationships with the staff members who supported them. Staff knew people’s individual histories, likes and dislikes and things that were important to them. People had their privacy and dignity respected and information personal to them was treated in confidence.
Care was planned and delivered in a way that was personalised to each person. Staff monitored people’s healthcare needs and, where changes in needs were identified, care was adjusted to make sure people continued to receive care which met their needs and supported their independence.
Risk assessments included the risks associated with people’s homes and risks to the person using the service. Staff had access to care plans and risk assessments and were aware of how to protect people from risks of harm associated with their care.
The agency had a recruitment procedure that ensured staff were thoroughly checked before they began work. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse and all said they were confident that any issues raised would be appropriately addressed by the registered manager. People felt safe with the staff who supported them. One member of staff told us, “My recent training really made me think how important it is to stay updated with training. I recently completed safeguarding refresher training, it really opened my eyes to the different kinds of abuse there are today.
People received help with their medicines from staff who were trained to safely support them and who made sure they had their medicine when they needed it. The provider undertook regular competency checks on staff to ensure they followed safe practice when supporting people.
There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and plan on-going improvements.
The results of a satisfaction survey had been very positive and people had expressed a high level of satisfaction with the service provided. People using the service and staff felt involved and able to make suggestions or raise concerns.