Naidcare

Updated 24 June 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats, and specialist housing schemes.

This service also provides care and support to 2 people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 19 March 2023 and ended on 20 June 2023. We visited the location’s office on 19 March 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the Local Authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records. This included 5 people’s support plans and Medication Administration Records [MAR] where appropriate. We looked at 1 staff file in relation to the provider’s recruitment practices and procedures. We looked at the provider’s arrangements for managing risk and medicines management, staff training, induction, and supervision data. We also looked at the service’s governance and quality assurance arrangements.

Following the inspection, we spoke with 3 people’s relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 3 members of staff about what it was like to be employed by Naidcare.

Updated 24 June 2023

About the service

Naidcare is a domiciliary care service providing the regulated activity of personal care to people living in their own homes, flats, and specialist housing schemes. At the time of our inspection there were a total of 16 people using the service across Essex and Staffordshire. This included 2 people who were living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

The provider demonstrated an understanding of ‘Right support, right care, right culture.’ Although very few people with a learning disability and autistic people were supported by the service, systems were in place to ensure their needs were met in a person-centred manner.

Right Support:

Staff supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence be independent and they had control over their own lives.

Staff focused on people's abilities and promoted what they could do.

Visits were organised, monitored, and delivered safely through effective use of an electronic call monitoring system.

Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that achieved the best possible health outcome.

Right Care:

Staff were described as kind and caring. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.

Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

People's care and support plans reflected their range of needs.

Staff received appropriate training, including specialist training on how to support autistic people and people with a learning disability.

Right Culture:

People's quality of life was enhanced by the service's culture of improvement and inclusivity.

Staff turnover was very low, which supported people to receive consistent care from staff who knew them well.

Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency and respect.

There had been improvements made at the service since the last inspection, and the registered manager was committed to continuous development and improvement to ensure lessons were learned.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement [Published 1 October 2022]

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

At our last inspection we recommended that the provider’s arrangements to investigate safeguarding concerns required improvement. At this inspection we found the provider had acted on our recommendations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions of Safe and Well-Led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Naidcare on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.