Background to this inspection
Updated
19 March 2020
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 Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type
Abbeyfield London Polish Society is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in one shared house.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.
Notice of inspection
We inspected on the 6 January 2020. This was an announced inspection as we needed to ensure the registered manager was available to speak with.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. Including notifications. This is information the provider must inform us by law. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We met with all seven people who used the service. We talked with one of them about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with three people’s relatives. We spoke at length with the registered manager, the team leader and one care worker. We also spoke briefly with two other care workers, an activity co-ordinator, occupational therapist and the cook. We observed staff interaction with people throughout the inspection.
We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and medicines records. We reviewed three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. Also, a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.
Updated
19 March 2020
About the service
Abbeyfield London Polish Society is a Domiciliary care service that provides personal care for older people. At the time of the inspection seven people were using this service. People all lived in one adapted house.
Each person had their own bedroom and shared communal spaces such as the lounge and dining area.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
At this inspection we found some aspects of the recruitment process could be improved to reflect more clearly the steps the provider had taken to ensure staff suitability for their caring role. However, recruitment was undertaken in a safe manner.
The registered manager had risk assessed to ensure people’s safety and there was good guidance and information for staff to mitigate the risk of harm to people.
Relatives spoke very positively about the care their family members received and several people and staff described the service as a, “family home.” People were provided with a range of activities to entertain and to support them to remain cognitively and physically active.
People had person centred plans and were provided with personalised care and support. People’s diverse needs were met by staff who spoke people’s preferred language and were able to provide traditional meals and understand people’s customs and traditions.
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.
Staff supported people to have their medicines in a timely manner and staff ensured people were supported to have access to health and social care professionals.
The registered manager held daily meetings with staff to hand over information, provide training and review policies and procedures to ensure staff had the right knowledge and skills to provide good care.
People and their relatives spoke well of the registered manager as they felt they were approachable, and any concerns would be addressed.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was good overall on 20 April 2017(published on 6 July 2017). They were found to be outstanding in caring and good in all other key questions.
At this inspection this service has been rated good in safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. The rating overall is good.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
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.