6 September 2018
During a routine inspection
At the time of this announced inspection of 6 September 2018, the agency provided 30 people with personal care. The areas covered included Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk areas such as Mildenhall and Red Lodge. We gave the service notice of our inspection to make sure that the registered manager and key staff would be available on the day of our inspection.
This was the first comprehensive inspection this location had received since it became registered on 7 July 2017. We found that the service provided was good.
A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage their service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
We found an agency that was well run for the benefit of the people who used it. The strongest element of this agency was the management in place. The registered manager had not been in place for long, but performed their role well. They were passionate about giving good quality care to people that met their needs. This culture of this service came from the registered manager who strived to keep up to date and develop where they could. They had a comprehensive oversight of the service and balanced well their role of being visible and available to people, relatives and staff whilst ensuring their role as manager was completed.
People spoke highly of the service offered and felt appropriately cared for. People experienced good care with on-going monitoring of their needs. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them to remain in their homes and as independent as they could be; the policies and systems in the service support this practice. People were supported to eat well and in some cases budget and shop for food.
Staff told us that they had the training and support to carry out their roles effectively and confidently. Staff spoke highly of the management who they said were approachable and made positive changes when needed. Staff were happy and positive. People told us they received care and support that was reliable and from the same group of staff.
There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people needs. People were able to develop caring and meaningful relationships with staff because staff were consistent and had regular rounds. People were safeguarded from the potential of harm and their freedoms protected. Staff were provided with training in Safeguarding Adults from abuse and the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 The manager knew how to make a referral if required.
Medicines were safely managed. The registered manager had oversight and had thorough quality assurance processes in place. There was a culture of learning from listening to people and positively learning from events so similar incidents were not repeated. The registered manager was supported appropriately by the provider and spoke positively about developments and resources being available to them.
Further information is in the detailed findings below.