Delta Care - Trafford

Delta Care - Trafford is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. People receiving care had a range of support needs; some people had long-term health conditions.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection the agency was supporting 125 people; 110 received help with aspects of personal care.

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

People told us they felt safe. Medicines were administered safely however, we have made a recommendation that staff receive further training in relation to the administration of medicines. The manager addressed this during the inspection.

Staff understood the risks to people's safety and wellbeing and what they should do to keep people safe. Risk assessments contained basic information to help minimise risk.

People we spoke with told us staff were usually on time and they had not experienced any missed care visits.

Safe systems of recruitment were followed to ensure staff were safe to work with vulnerable people. Recruitment processes helped to ensure staff were of suitable character and had relevant experience.

There were safe infection control procedures in place including enough supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). The provider had infection control measures in place and people told us staff wore PPE.

Staff had good relationships with other health professionals and liaised with stakeholders to ensure people received appropriate support.

Staff were supported with an induction, supervision and training, to ensure they had the knowledge and skills to support people. Spot checks and competency checks were carried out to ensure staff practice kept people safe.

People and their relatives told us staff knew their needs and preferences well. Staff were available to support people to stay in touch with those who were important to them, and to follow their interests, where this was an agreed part of their care. People and relatives knew how to complain and told us any concerns they had raised had been dealt with to their satisfaction.

The manager monitored standards of care delivery with a range of quality checks and audits, although we identified these needed to be improved to ensure more robust oversight of the service. Policies and procedures were in place to guide staff practice.

Feedback from people, their relatives and staff was positive. One person said, “I have already recommended [them] to others.” Staff told us they were well-supported and felt part of a team.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 28 August 2020.)

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 based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Delta Care – Trafford 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.

Delta Care – Trafford is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 55 adults at the time of the inspection.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

Significant improvements had been made following the previous inspection in November 2019. Feedback from people, their relatives and staff was overwhelmingly positive and reflected the changes made to the service. Systems had improved to ensure people now received their medicines safely. People received their visits on time and people told us they felt safe with the care being provided.

People were treated with dignity and respect by kind and caring staff. People were happy with their care and the registered manager had responded positively to the last inspection to ensure the service was more person centred.

People and staff praised the changes to the service since our last inspection. Improvements to the governance systems ensured a better oversight of performance and quality. Data was used consistently to address any concerns quickly to support continued improvement.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was inadequate (published 27 January 2020). 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.

This service has been in Special Measures since 27 January 2020. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements had been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service in November 2019. Breaches of legal requirements were found and we served three Warning Notices for Regulations 9, 12 and 17.

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 Safe, Caring and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. 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 Delta Care Trafford on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Delta Care – Trafford is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 58 adults and one child at the time of inspection.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People were experiencing late and early calls which didn’t support their needs. People did not know who would be supporting them and were concerned about the of continuity of staff visiting them. Medicines were not always safely managed. Where late calls impacted on people, the risks needed further exploring by the provider.

Audits to monitor and improve the service had not highlighted the concerns with late and early calls and that staff were not staying the allocated time of the visit. Audits to monitor medicines had highlighted some concerns but it was unclear what action had been taken to improve. There was a lack of oversight of the pressures the staff were under to complete visits to people in a timely manner.

There was a clear theme of a lack of communication between the provider and people using the service. People overwhelmingly told us, they had to ring the office and find out why their call was late and sometimes there was no response. People felt rushed and did not always receive dignified interactions from staff.

Staff told us, and we saw, on some occasions the correct information to support people was not available in care plans. People told us they had to tell staff what to do during a visit and some staff confirmed this. People did not always know who to complain to but on the occasions they had, were not always satisfied with the response.

People were not always complimentary of the support they received with eating and drinking. Improvements were needed to ensure people received consistent, effective and timely care. People had their capacity reviewed and the provider worked in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; however, the timelessness of calls impacted up on people’s wellbeing.

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

Rating at last inspection This service was registered with us on 15/11/2018 and this is the first Inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the provider’s registration date.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Special Measures:

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it. And it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.