Archived: Mayfair Homecare - Newbury

Updated 14 June 2022

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector and an Expert by Experience (ExE). An ExE is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 18 May 2022 and ended on 31 May 2022. We visited the location’s office on 19 May 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 8 March 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed other information we had received about the service, including notifications received from the provider. The law requires providers to send us notifications about certain events that happen during the running of a service. We also reviewed the provider’s social media sites to confirm they had published our last inspection ratings. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We tried to contact 22 people who use the service or their representatives and spoke with seven people and five relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager, the regional manager, the care coordinator, the team leader and a member of care staff. After the site visit, we continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We spoke with six other staff members and reviewed a range of records, including four people’s care records, medication records and daily notes. We looked at six staff files in relation to recruitment and six staff supervision records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed, including the provider’s policies, procedures and quality assurance audits.

Updated 14 June 2022

About the service

Mayfair Homecare - Newbury is a domiciliary care agency providing care and support to people living in their own homes. It provides a service to older adults, people living with dementia and people living with physical disabilities, sensory impairment, learning disabilities and autism. Not everyone who uses the service receives personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal support with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care to 18 people living in the Newbury, Thatcham, Reading and surrounding areas. At the time of inspection, the service was in the process of terminating their care provision in the Reading area.

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

The registered manager was working with local authority commissioning to ensure people received care at their preferred times to support risk management. People receiving care in the Reading area consistently praised the quality of care they received and voiced their disappointment about the discontinuance of the provider’s service in this area. Other people and staff told us they felt well supported by the registered manager, who had developed an effective management team that worked well together. The management team effectively operated systems to review the quality and safety of the service. The registered manager encouraged critical feedback from people and staff to drive continuous improvement in the service. Staff had developed positive relationships, effective communication and information sharing with community health care professionals, which ensured people’s changing needs were met with the appropriate care and treatment.

People were supported by staff who understood how to safeguard them from abuse, neglect and discrimination. Enough staff with the right mix of skills and experience were deployed to deliver care and support which met people’s needs. Staff had effectively assessed risks to people’s health and well-being, which enabled staff to manage them safely. People experienced good continuity and consistency of care from regular staff who knew them well and how they wished their care to be delivered. Robust recruitment checks ensured prospective staff were suitable to provide support for people in their own homes. People received their prescribed medicines from staff who had their competence to manage medicines safely regularly assessed. Staff had raised concerns and reported incidents, which ensured action was taken to protect people. We were assured that staff followed safe infection control and food hygiene practices.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 20 January 2020).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services which have had a recent Direct Monitoring Approach (DMA) assessment where no further action was needed to seek assurance about this decision and to identify learning about the DMA process.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.