Archived: Risborough Carers Ltd

People continued to receive an excellent, caring and compassionate support from kind and committed staff. The extremely caring nature of the service was sustained as a result of the well-established provider and the fact this is their family run business set up 27 years ago. The management led by example and successfully created a stable, loyal and reliable team.

People’s continued to be extremely complimentary about the support they had and about meaningful relationships they were able to form with the staff. People referred to staff as ‘friends’ and staff referred to working together ‘like a family’.

Staff continued to exceed in recognising what was important to people and ensured individually tailored approach that met people’s personal needs, wishes and choices was delivered. There was evidence the staff often went ‘the extra mile’ to meet people’s needs.

The staff discussed with people and helped people explore their needs and preferences in relation to support received and all people told us they were a driving force behind any decisions about their care. Staff excelled at respecting people’s privacy and dignity. People were supported to be as independent as possible, which was in line with their goals and outcomes that stated people wished to remain at their own homes for as long as possible.

All people and relatives, without an exception said they would definitely recommend this service to family and friends.

The provider ensured people received safe care and treatment. People complimented the continuity of care provided by regular, skilled and competent staff which contributed to building meaningful relationships. People continued to receive their medicines safely and as prescribed. Risks to people’s well-being and safety were assessed, recorded and updated when people’s circumstances changed. The registered manager ensured any lessons learnt were reflected on to improve the service further.

People received personalised approach that met their needs and the service remained flexible to people’s changing needs. People’s rights to make own decisions were respected. People remained well supported to maintain good diet and access health services if needed.

The service remained well-led. The provider’s quality assurance processes were effective and there was a focus on continuous improvement. People, staff and relatives were involved and listened to. The service worked well in partnership with other agencies, social and health professionals and external organisations.

More information is in Detailed Findings below.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (report published 21 April 2016).

About the service:

Risborough Carers Ltd are a domiciliary care agency (DCA). The service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of our inspection the service supported 84 people of which 57 received personal care as the regulated activity.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will monitor all intelligence received about the service to inform the assessment of the risk profile of the service and to ensure the next planned inspection is scheduled accordingly.

Risborough Carers provides domiciliary care services to people who live in their own home. At the time of our inspection there were 101 people with a variety of care needs using the service.

The service had 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 promoted strong organisational values which resulted in a caring culture that centred on people using the service. People, their relatives, staff and health and social care professionals were complimentary about the registered manager, management team and how the service was run.

People felt cared for, valued as individuals and told us staff went out of their way to make them feel they mattered. Everyone we spoke with was exceedingly complimentary about the quality of care provided. People and their relatives spoke highly of the skills and knowledge of the staff. People told us staff were kind, extremely caring and regularly carried out extra acts of kindness when supporting them.

People were cared for in a respectful and dignified way. They were given choices about where they wanted their care, when they wanted that care and which staff they would prefer to care for them. Staff knew the people they cared for, understood their individual preferences and what was important to them. People were supported to maintain their health and were referred for specialist advice as required. People were encouraged to remain as independent as possible. Staff understood the importance of promoting independence.

People had a range of risk assessments in place. Associated care plans were personalised and contained detailed information to enable staff to understand people’s needs and how those needs should be met. People were involved in their care and felt listened to.

People felt safe when being supported by staff. Staff told us there was an open culture at the service and were clear about the action they would take to keep people safe. People and staff were confident they could raise any concerns and these would be dealt with.

Staff were very positive about the support they received from the management and office team. Staff were encouraged to be open and felt able to ask for support whenever it was needed. Staff had access to development opportunities and training to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs. The registered manager ensured staff were competent before allowing them to work alone or carry out specialist tasks.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs. People received their prescribed medicines when they needed them.

The service looked for ways to continually improve the quality of the service. There were effective quality assurance processes in place to monitor the quality of the service.

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People were asked for their consent before care was carried out. However, the registered manager and other senior staff were not clear on their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to ensure the service completed their own mental capacity assessments if it was thought a person may lack the capacity to make certain decisions.

We have made a recommendation about seeking further training for the registered manager and senior staff around the completion of mental capacity assessments.

The care records we saw were clearly written and person centred. The person and/or their relatives had been involved throughout the care planning process and were involved in regular reviews. Care plans included information about a range of health, personal and social needs. The assessments also included how people liked to be addressed and how they liked to have their service delivered.

We saw that the agency had a safeguarding policy in place which described the local safeguarding arrangements. Care workers were able to demonstrate their knowledge of safeguarding procedures.

We saw there were robust and effective recruitment and selection processes in place. One care worker said, 'I feel the agency does everything it should, supervision, spot checks, training, monthly staff meetings, newsletters we are well informed. I know who to go to if I have safeguarding concerns'.

People who used the service benefited from safe quality care treatment and support due to effective decision making and management of risks to their health welfare and safety. The agency monitored the quality of service that people received and they identified, monitored and managed risks to people who used the service. Where they did not have the knowledge themselves they sought professional advice about how to run the service safely.