Woodleigh Healthcare (Surrey Branch)

Updated 3 March 2023

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

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 1 Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience 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 houses and flats. This service also provides care and support to people living in a number of ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living. This inspection only looked at the 3 supported living services where people were receiving personal care.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

The service had recently appointed a manager who has submitted their application to the Care Quality Commission to become the registered manager. This means that the provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 13 January 2023 and ended on 27 January 2023. We visited the location’s office on 13 January 2023. We visited the supported living services on 19 and 24 January 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 11 people who used the service and 6 relatives to hear about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 14 members of staff including the nominated individual, the manager, a team leader and carers. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We observed interactions between people who used the service and staff. We sought feedback from 2 healthcare professionals. We reviewed a range of records. This included 6 people’s care records including care plans and risk assessments; and 7 people’s medication records. We looked at 6 staff files in relation to recruitment and supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, were reviewed.

Updated 3 March 2023

About the service

Woodleigh Healthcare (Surrey Branch) is a homecare agency and supported living service provider providing care to people in their own homes. The service is registered to provide care to older people, children, people living with sensory impairments, mental health needs, dementia, physical disabilities and learning disabilities and/or autistic people.

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.

There were 22 people receiving personal care in their houses and flats, and there were 4 people receiving personal care across three supported living services the provider was operating. The service was also operating several other supported living services where people did not receive personal care. As a result, we did not inspect those services.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

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

Right Support:

People’s were safely supported around their individual risks and staff understood how to maintain and encourage people’s independence. There were sufficient staff to cover agreed one-to-one and shared support hours, and people receiving homecare told us staff were generally on time. We were assured that the service were following good infection prevention and control procedures to keep people safe. Care records showed that staff worked with healthcare professionals to achieve positive outcomes for people.

Right Care:

People and their relatives told us they felt supported by staff in a kind, caring and dignified way. People’s differences were respected by staff and they had undertaken relevant training to effectively support people. This included training for learning disabilities and autism awareness. People told us the care was generally consistent and staff knew them well. People’s right to privacy was respected and staff encouraged people to provide feedback about their care.

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.

Right Culture:

The provider’s monitoring systems were not always effective in identifying and acting on shortfalls we found during this inspection. For example, we identified areas of improvement in relation to medicines documentation and storage some of which had not been identified by governance systems the provider had in place. Opportunities for improvement could be missed because monitoring systems in place did not consistently act on staff feedback. The provider supplied us with evidence on how they had addressed these shortfalls. We have reported on this in the well-led section of this report.

The culture of the service was open and inclusive. The three supported living services we visited were situated in residential areas and there were no outward signs to differentiate them from other houses in the street. People and their relatives were complimentary about the service and felt their ideas and concerns would be listened to by the registered manager and the provider. People told us they felt they could approach the management of the service with ideas and suggestions they had. Staff were generally complimentary about management and told us they were able to raise concerns if they needed to.

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 the service was good (published 5 October 2021).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staff management of risks in relation to people’s care and the culture in the service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We did not find evidence of the concerns we received prior to the inspection in relation to risk management and the culture in the service but we identified areas of improvement in relation to the monitoring systems that the provider had in place. Please see the well-led section of this report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Woodleigh Healthcare (Surrey Branch) 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.