Archived: Warrington Borough Council Intermediate Care At Home

Updated 29 February 2016

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 provider was 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.

The inspection took place on 4 January 2016 and was announced. A second day of the inspection took place on 05 January 2016 in order to gather additional information. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice of our intention to inspect the service. This is in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies.

The inspection was undertaken by two adult social care inspectors and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service, in this case of people requiring domiciliary / rehabilitative care.

Before the inspection the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR) which we reviewed in order to prepare for the inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about Warrington Borough Council’s Intermediate Care at Home service. We also looked at all the information which the Care Quality Commission already held on the provider. This included previous inspections and any information the provider had to notify us about. We also invited the local authority’s contract monitoring team to provide us with any information they held about the service. We took any information provided to us into account.

During the site visit we spoke with the registered manager of the Intermediate Care at Home service, two deputy managers and 10 care assistants.

We also contacted 19 people who used the service and five relatives by telephone and undertook home visits by invitation to speak with two more service users. Prior to the inspection we sent surveys to an additional 45 people who used the service; 45 relatives and 27 health care professionals to seek more feedback on the service. Nine questionnaires were received from people using the service, one from a relative and three from community professionals. Overall feedback was positive however only 56% of the respondents were of the view that staff arrived on time.

We looked at a range of records including eight care files belonging to people who used the service. This process is called pathway tracking and enables us to judge how well the service understand and plan to meet people’s care needs and manage any risks to people’s health and well-being. Examples of other records viewed included; policies and procedures; four staff files; minutes of meetings; complaint and safeguarding records; rotas and / or visit schedules; staff training and audit documentation.

Updated 29 February 2016

This inspection was announced and took place on the 04 January 2016. A second day of the inspection took place on 05 January 2016 in order to gather additional information.

The agency was previously inspected in July 2013 when it was found to be meeting all the regulatory requirements which were inspected at that time.

Warrington Borough Council Intermediate Care at Home is a domiciliary care service provided by the local authority. The service is coordinated from premises in Vulcan Close, Warrington and encompasses all of the Warrington area. The service was providing the regulated activity ‘personal care’ to 78 people when we inspected.

The main function of the service is to provide rehabilitative home care to new service users over a six week assessment period. When the care package is established and stable, provision is transferred to an outside agency. The service is integrated with Bridgewater Community Healthcare Trust and works closely with other community services.

At the time of the inspection there was a registered manager at Warrington Borough Council Intermediate Care At Home 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 registered manager was present during the two days of our inspection and engaged positively in the inspection process, together with other members of the office management team and staff.

Feedback received from people using the service or their representatives was generally complimentary of the service and confirmed people had received care and support which was personalised and focussed on promoting their independence and wellbeing.

The needs of people using the service had been assessed prior to receiving support from the Intermediate Care At Home service. Care plans and risk assessments had also been completed to ensure staff understood how to meet individual needs and keep people safe.

Staff had been recruited correctly to safeguard the welfare of people using the service and had access to induction, training and qualifications that were relevant to their roles and responsibilities. Staff spoken with also confirmed that they had received formal supervision and attended team meetings at regular intervals.

Systems had been established to monitor key aspects of the service and obtain feedback from people using the service via monitoring visits and surveys upon completion of the service. Likewise policies and procedures had been developed to ensure an appropriate response to suspicion or evidence of abuse and complaints.