Archived: Help Unlimited 4 Cresswell Corner

We found that most people's care plans had been reviewed regularly and there were up to date risk assessments on each care plan. Most of the people that we spoke with told us that they were happy with the care that was provided.

We found that there were suitable arrangements in place that dealt with medicines. The service had an up to date medicines policy and we saw that staff received medication training.

We saw that the service did not have appropriate recruitments procedures in place. Some of the staff files that we looked at did not have pre-employments checks in place before the member of staff started work.

Although we saw that staff have received up to date mandatory training; most of the staff told us that they felt the training (which was all DVD based) was not sufficient. We also found that staff did not feel supported in their roles.

The service had systems in place to monitor and assess the quality of the service that was provided. This included quality assurance questionnaires to people who used the service and audits on the daily care notes that were written by staff.

During our inspection we found that all of the mandatory training was up to date for staff. This included training on moving and handling, infection control, safeguarding vulnerable adults and food hygiene. We spoke with six members of staff. They all told us that they had completed all of their mandatory training.

Most of the staff we spoke with told us that they did not feel supported by their managers and that they had not had the opportunity to have a one to one meeting with their managers to discuss their development within the organisation.

We saw that the service undertook monthly quality assurance questionnaires with the people who used the service to establish their views. We noted that spot checks had been carried out by the managers to assess the quality of the care that was given by staff.

We found that all care plans had been updated and there were up to date risk assessments in each of them.

We spoke to four people who used the service. They told us that the care they received was good. One person told us that they 'enjoyed seeing their carer.'

Three of the people we spoke to told us that they didn't always understand what the care worker said because the staff member did not have English as their first language.

During our inspection we found that not all of the mandatory training was up to date for staff.

We looked at two staff files and saw that the correct recruitment processes had been followed.

We spoke to staff who told us that they felt supported however three of them told us that they had not had any 1-1 meetings with their managements.