Archived: Coventry Short Term Home Support

Updated 15 August 2018

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 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.

This comprehensive inspection was carried out by one inspector 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 care service. The expert by experience made telephone calls to people prior to the office visit.

Inspection activity started on 19 June 2018 and ended on 31 July 2018. This included telephoning people and their relatives to get their views on the care they received. We visited the office location on 31 July 2018 to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We told the provider we were coming so they could arrange to be there and arrange for care staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

The provider had completed a Provider Information Collection (PIC) before this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information in the PIC during our visit. We found the information reflected how the service operated.

Prior to the office visit we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included statutory notifications the service had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. We also reviewed the ‘share your experience’ information we had received. This is information that people who use the service/ relatives/members of the public or social care professionals want to tell us about. These can be concerns or compliments. We contacted the local authority who arranged placements with the service. Information received was considered as part of our inspection planning.

The provider sent a list of people who used the service to us; this was so we could contact people by phone to ask them their views of the service. We spoke with ten people, and four relatives of people who used the service. We used this information to help us make a judgement about the service.

During our inspection visit we spoke with the registered manager about their management of the service. We spoke with the care co-ordinator, two team leaders, the administrator and three care staff about their roles, and what it was like to work for Coventry Short Term Home Service.

We reviewed three people’s care records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We looked at three staff recruitment files, staff training records and records associated with the provider's quality checking systems.

Updated 15 August 2018

The office visit of this inspection took place on 31 July 2018 and was announced.

Coventry Short Term Home Service is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. It provides a re-enablement service for up to six weeks. This is to support people to regain their independence, following discharge from hospital or to prevent admission. It also provided support to four people who required long term care and support to remain at home. At the time of this inspection the service supported 41 people with personal care and employed 17 care staff.

This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered in August 2017.

A requirement of the provider’s registration is that they have a registered manager. There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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.

People felt safe using the service and there were enough staff to provide the care and support people required. Staff had completed safeguarding training and understood how to keep people safe from avoidable harm and abuse. Risks to people’s safety were identified and assessments completed to guide staff about how to reduce or manage the risk. The provider’s recruitment procedures made sure staff were safe to work with people who used the service. People received their prescribed medicines from staff who had completed training to do this safely.

People had an assessment completed at the start of their service. This was to make sure people were suitable for the short-term service and that staff could meet their care and support needs. Staff received an induction when they started working for the service and completed training that provided them with the skills and knowledge to support people’s needs. When needed, arrangements were in place to support people to have enough to eat and drink and remain in good health.

The registered manager and staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act. Staff asked for people’s consent before they provided care and respected decisions people made about their care and support.

Coventry Short Term Home Service supported people to regain their independence after discharge from hospital. The service was ‘non-time specific’ which meant care staff did not always have set times to visit people and people’s calls were allocated within a two-hour time slot. Not all the people who used the service knew this and expected care staff to arrive at consistent times.

People received care from staff who they considered to be kind and caring, and who stayed long enough to provide the care and support people required. Staff promoted people’s privacy and dignity. People received care and support which was individual to them.

Care plans provided information for staff about people’s preferences, their care needs and the support they needed to regain independence. People’s needs were kept under review and plans updated as people’s independence increased. People knew how to complain, and information about making a complaint was available for people.

Staff understood their roles and responsibilities and had regular individual meetings and observations of their practice to make sure they carried these out safely. There was an ‘out of hours’ on call system which ensured support and advice was always available for staff when the office was closed. The management team worked well together and the provider had effective and responsive processes for assessing and monitoring the quality of the service.