Archived: U. First Care Head Office

You First Care Head Office provides personal care and support for people with a learning disability living in the community. The care and support is provided for people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection they were providing personal care support for only two people, however the service also supported people with a range of community-based activities.

Not everyone using U First Care receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being provided to people who are receiving ‘personal care’; which means help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided.

There was a registered manager in post. 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. The registered manager was not present during the inspection and the provider informed us they intended to register as the manager.

We found the service had not arranged to provide a suitable contract specifying the terms and conditions in respect of the services to be provided to the service users. We found this was breach of Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Registration) Regulations 2009.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

People were happy with their regular staff but were not always happy with the cover arrangements in place when their usual staff member was absent.

We made a recommendation the provider revisits their service agreements so that people are clear about the cover arrangements the service can provide.

Improvements were required to ensure all staff received regular refresher training. Whilst we saw staff were qualified and had undertaken professional qualifications, regular refresher mandatory training such as manual handling and first aid was still required.

We made a recommendation the provider review their current training programme to support the continuous knowledge and professional development of its staff.

Staff were able to identify safeguarding concerns and the procedure in place to report concerns. We found that safeguarding referrals were made when the provider recognised people had put themselves at risk, however we found that the provider had not always shared this information with us.

We made a recommendation the provider seeks further guidance related to their responsibility to notify us about certain changes, events and incidents that affect their service or the people who use it.

There were detailed and informative care plans in place, which were regularly reviewed. There was a complaints procedure in place, but people told us they had not always felt listened to. The provider contacted people following this inspection to discuss their concerns.

Some quality assurance processes were in place. However, the provider needed to establish a more robust quality assurance process particularly if the service grew.

Risks to people were identified and managed to prevent people from receiving unsafe care and support. There were robust systems in place to ensure staff were properly recruited and the service was appropriately staffed to meet people’s needs.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff knew people well and the care provided was person centred. People told us care staff provided an individualised service. Staff were valued and received the necessary support and guidance to provide a person centred service.

The provider delivered clear leadership and was well known to and accessible to people using the service and staff. They also played an active role in working with and visiting people receiving support.

People's needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in a way that met those individual needs. One person told us, 'U.First is brilliant. They really are client centred. I feel they are good at giving me complete control over the service I receive.'

People who used the service were protected from the risk of abuse, because the provider had taken reasonable steps to identify the possibility of abuse and prevent abuse from happening. Staff members understood about abuse and the local safeguarding procedures.

People were cared for by staff who were supported to deliver care and treatment safely and to an appropriate standard. Staff were trained specifically in meeting the needs of people they were assigned to support.

The provider had an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received because they listened to comments and feedback from people who used the service and the staff team. The provider took steps to identify shortfalls and set time bound actions to resolve them.