Archived: Reed Specialist Recruitment Ltd - Community Care - Manchester

¿ Reed Specialist Recruitment Ltd - Community Care - Manchester (known as Reed) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Reed provides a service to children and adults across Greater Manchester and Warrington.

¿ Not everyone using Reed receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

¿ At the time of our inspection Reed was supporting 25 people in total, but only 12 of these people received a regulated activity. Our judgements are based on our findings relating to the 12 people in receipt of personal care support.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ People and their relatives were positive about the support provided by Reed. They said the staff knew people’s needs well and knew how to maintain their privacy and dignity.

¿ Staff had the training and support to undertake their role. This included specific training, such as epilepsy training, to meet individual’s needs.

¿ The support people required was assessed and reviewed regularly. Risks were identified and guidance provided for staff to manage these known risks.

¿ Care plans detailed the support to be provided by the members of Reed staff and what they were to do at each visit.

¿ Staff were trained in medicines administration. Care plans stated if staff or people’s family were responsible for administering the medicines. Relatives said that people received their medicines as prescribed. One care plan we saw had not been updated to indicate that staff administered one medicine. The staff recorded when medicines had been administered.

¿ A quality assurance system was in place. Matrices were used to monitor care plan reviews, staff training and supervision, incidents and complaints.

¿ Incidents were monitored and reviewed to identify if there were any patterns and to reduce the risk of further incidents occurring.

¿ The national quality assurance manager completed quarterly audits and the Reed central quality department audited the service every six months. The results of these were seen to be positive. Action plans were written to address any issues that had been found.

¿ Staff said they enjoyed working at the service and felt well supported by the registered manager and care co-ordinators.

¿ Staff were safely recruited.

¿ There was a formal complaints policy in place. Any complaints received had been responded to appropriately.

Rating at last inspection: Good; report published 12 October 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

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.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Reed Specialist Recruitment Ltd - Community Care - Manchester is a small domiciliary care agency. The service provides personal and nursing care and support to adults, young people and children living in their own homes. The office is situated in the centre of Manchester with bus rail and Metro link transport systems close by.

The service had a 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.

Relatives of the people who used the service told us they were happy with the care they received. They told us people felt safe with the staff and the care they were provided with. We found there were systems in place to protect people from risk of harm and appropriate recruitment procedures were in place. There were policies and procedures in place in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and staff showed they understood how to ensure their practice was in line with the MCA.

We found people were cared for, or supported by, appropriately trained staff. Staff received support to help them understand how to deliver good care. People who used the service said their visit times generally suited their needs, however sometimes these had to be changed due to staffing or changes by the relative of the person receiving care. Some people told us calls were sometimes late, but they were always notified of this by a call from the office or care worker.

Staff we spoke with told us they received supervisions and spot checks and had completed an appraisal in 2016. Staff told us they could speak to management at any time if they had any concerns. We saw minutes from staff meetings which showed they had taken place on a regular basis; however the agency was looking at new ways to ensure all staff attended.

The care and support plans we looked at were person centred and were reviewed regularly by the registered manager. However in two of the three care/support plans were not signed by the registered manager. We spoke to the registered manager about this on the day of inspection.

People told us they got the support they needed with meals and healthcare. We saw arrangements for managing medicines were safe.

We saw effective management systems in place in relation to the auditing of the service.

People who used this service received safe and appropriate support to meet their assessed needs. The relative of a person who used the service told us, "I can't praise the staff enough. I am very happy with the care X receives."

Appropriate systems had been put in place to safeguard vulnerable adults and children using this service from abuse. Staff understood their responsibilities in this area and knew what action to take if they suspected a person was at risk of harm.

This service employed skilled care staff in sufficient numbers to provide continuity of care to the people receiving personal care and support. A relative said, "My x has had the same carer for three months and they get on very well."

Staff working for this service received good training and support. This ensured they had the skills and knowledge to safely meet the needs of the people they supported. A relative commented, "The staff are competent and confident in their work. I can't praise them enough."

A robust system of quality assurance was in place to ensure people received care and support, which was person centred and safe.