Archived: Impression Health and Support Domiciliary Care Agency

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. This is the first inspection for this registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. Staff listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice. For example, the provider shared learning from incidents and accidents with the staff team and worked to review strategies ensuring the culture amongst the staff was open, consistent and transparent.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care, in which safety was managed or monitored. They made sure there was continuity of care, including when people moved between different services. We saw how a person was safely supported to move from a service to another. This was completed gradually over time to ensure the staff were able to learn about the person’s history, get to know them and their family and forge relationships with other healthcare professionals involved in their care.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to understand what being safe meant to them and the best way to achieve that. Staff concentrated on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying. People were active in the community. There were detailed risk assessments in place to enable people to freely access the community with support from staff, which promoted their independence. For example, staff used ‘now and next’ strategies with one person, so the prospect of being unsettled if plans changed last minute were mitigated. Where people had restrictions on their liberty DoLs had been appropriately applied for.

The provider worked with people to understand and manage risks by thinking holistically. Staff provided care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them. For example, a person was taken on holiday with staff and was supported to access the swimming pool, which was something they had never done. Staff used a range of communication methods to explain the situation to the person who agreed to try this activity. They have since accessed the pool every day and it has become a new favourite hobby.

The provider detected and controlled potential risks in the care environment. They made sure equipment, facilities and technology supported the delivery of safe care. The provider worked in partnership with the housing provider to ensure any issues with the environment were escalated on people’s behalf. In terms of the general upkeep of the environment, people were supported by staff to ensure their homes were clean well kept.

The provider made sure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff, who received effective support, supervision and development. They worked together well to provide safe care that met people’s individual needs. Staff were recruited and selected safely and rotas were designed with staff whose skills matched the people they were supporting in terms of age and interests. For example, a person was supported by a staff member who enjoyed the outdoors, as they liked to walk a lot.

The provider assessed and managed the risk of infection. They detected and controlled the risk of it spreading and shared concerns with appropriate agencies promptly. Staff completed infection control training and ensured harmful substances were stored safely in people’s homes. Where people engaged with the cleaning of their homes, this was completed after a risk assessment and safety measures such as using gloves and aprons were introduced.

The provider made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. Staff involved people in planning, including when changes happened. Documentation relating to medicines were up to date and reviewed as people’s needs changed. Only staff who had undertaken medication training were permitted to administer medicines. The service worked within the guidelines of STOMP (Stopping over medication of people with a learning disability and autistic people) to ensure people were being given PRN medication (as and when required) appropriately.