Archived: In Out and About Community Support Office

Updated 16 May 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type:

In Out and About Community Support Office is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care and support to one person in their home. They also assist this person with accessing the community.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available.

Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 29 March 2019. We visited the office location to see the registered manager and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included checking incidents the provider must notify us about, such as serious injuries and abuse. We sought feedback from the local authority, Healthwatch and health and social care professionals who work with the service. On this occasion, we had not asked the provider to send us a provider Information return (PIR). A PIR is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service. This includes what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. However, we offered the provider the opportunity to share information they felt was relevant

During the inspection, we met and spoke with the person who used the service in their own home. We spoke with two members of the support staff, senior support worker and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included the person’s care and support records and three staff files. We also viewed training and supervision records and records relating to the safety and management of the service.

After inspection, we asked the registered manager to provide us with a variety of policies and procedures. All information was sent within the required timeframe. We used all this information to help form our judgements detailed within this report.

Updated 16 May 2019

About the service: In Out and About Community Support Office is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care and support to one person in their own home for two days a week. They also support the person to access the community.

The provider met the characteristics of ‘Good’ in all areas. This has improved from a rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ at the last inspection in 2015. More information about this is in the full report. This service has not been inspected since 2015 because the provider ceased to provide the regulated activity of personal care between 2016 and 2018.

People’s experience of using this service:

• The person was protected from avoidable harm. The risks to their safety had been appropriately assessed and acted on. Environment and evacuation risk assessment were not in place at the time of the inspection. Immediate action was taken to address this. The person received support from a small and consistent team of staff. The person did not receive support from staff with their medicines. There were no infection control risks. The registered manager had the processes in place to investigate and act on any accidents and incidents. To date, there have been none.

• The person’s care and support was provided in line with their assessed needs and protected the person from discrimination. Most staff training was up to date, action was being taken to address the shortfalls. Staff felt supported to carry out their role. Staff supported the person to lead a healthy and balanced lifestyle. The person was supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice.

• Staff had built a meaningful, kind and caring relationship with the person. Staff treated the person with respect and dignity and listened to and acted on their views. The person’s privacy was respected. Effective processes were in place to store records safely and in line with data protection legislation.

• The person received person centred care and support that considered their choices and preferences. Staff supported the person to achieve their agreed goals. The person was supported to access the community. Efforts had been made to provide information in a format the person could understand. No complaints had been received, but there were appropriate policies and procedures in place to act if there was. End of life care was not provided.

• Improvements had been made to the overall governance of the service. An additional member of staff was in place to support the registered manager with maintaining high quality records. Records viewed were now comprehensively completed and reviewed. The views of the person were used to help improve and develop the service. Staff enjoyed working at the service and felt respected and valued. Quality assurance processes were in place to help inform the provider of the quality of the service provided.

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection the service was rated as Requires Improvement (Published May 2015).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to review information we receive about the service until the next scheduled inspection. If we receive any information of concern we may inspect sooner than scheduled.