Archived: Lav Care Services - St Neots

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

The service was involved with sourcing accommodation for people, but the registration requirements were not fully understood by the provider. They told us they had sourced a consultant to assist with this and during the inspection contacted CQC to change their registration to include supported living. This is being reviewed by CQC.

People told us the service provided care that met their needs. They told us care was delivered with kindness and respect. People had been involved in the planning of their care as were their relatives as appropriate. 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.

People told us they felt safe, and systems were in place to help protect people from the risk of harm, abuse, and improper treatment.

Risks had been identified to people who used the service, and staff. Care plans were detailed and individual to each person. People told us they received a flexible and responsive service.

Staff told us they felt supported, and we saw they had been safely recruited. References and other checks were completed to review the suitability of staff for their role. Staff received an induction and completed training. Their competency to perform key aspects of their role such as medicine administration was assessed. People told us they had confidence in the staff’s abilities.

Systems were in place to oversee and assess the quality of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

The rating for this inspection was good at the last inspection on 21 September 2021 (published 5 October 2021).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led. 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 remained good.

Follow up

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

Lav Care Services - St Neots is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own houses or flats. It provides a live-in care service for people with more complex care needs. It provides a service to older adults, some of whom are living with dementia, people with mental health needs, people with a sensory impairment, younger people and people with a physical disability. At the time of the inspection 18 people were supported by the service. The provider had recently moved its office from St Neots to a Suffolk based address.

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

There were systems and processes in place to help ensure that safeguards were effective in keeping people safe.

Risks were identified and managed including for infection prevention and control (IPC). One person told us, "I need help in the shower and staff do this very carefully, so I don't fall." Trained and competent staff administered and managed people’s medicines.

Enough staff with the necessary skills were safely recruited; these staff knew how to effectively meet people's needs. Staff received effective training that supported them in their role.

There were policies and procedures in place which supported good IPC practices, and this minimised infection risk. An open and learning culture was in place and this helped lessons’ to be learned and shared amongst the staff 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. One person said “[Staff] consider what I say then do as I ask them. They always respect my choices and without rushing me."

Staff supported people to communicate effectively without discrimination, by treating people equally well, and upholding their confidentiality. Staff provided people with care that was kind and centred on the person by being respectful, and promoting independence wherever possible.

Concerns were acted on before they became a complaint, and compliments were used to identify what worked well; this helped ensure good practise was sustained. Skilled and compassionate staff ensured people’s end of life care was dignified.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities. Staff were supported in their role to be open and honest by promoting the provider’s values. People had a say in how the service was run and managed.

Quality assurance procedure and oversight of the service was effective in driving sustained improvements. The provider worked well with others involved in people’s care to help ensure their care was joined up.

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 19 December 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration with CQC.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC 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.