Archived: Availl (Harrow and Hillingdon)

Updated 24 February 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

The inspection was carried out on 11, 12 and 15 January 2016 and the first day was unannounced. The inspection visits and gaining feedback from staff were carried out by one inspector and a second inspector carried out telephone calls to obtain feedback from people using the service and their relatives.

Before we visited the service we checked the information that we held about it, including any notifications sent to us informing us of significant events that had occurred at the service. Notifications are for certain changes, events and incidents affecting the service or the people who use it that providers are required to notify us about.

During the inspection we viewed a variety of records including four people’s care records, recruitment and training details for six staff, medicine administration record charts for two people using the service, risk assessments and policies and procedures.

We spoke with six people using the service, five relatives, the nominated individual who we refer to as the provider in this report, the second company director, the care coordinator and four care staff. We also spoke with the local authority quality assurance manager.

Updated 24 February 2016

The inspection was carried out on 11, 12 and 15 January 2016 and the first day was unannounced. This was the first inspection of this service since it was registered on 28 August 2013.

Availl (Harrow and Hillingdon) provides domiciliary care services for adults with a range of needs. The service offers support to people who require help with day to day routines, including personal care, meal preparation, housework and shopping. They also provide outreach services, supporting people to go out into the community. At the time of inspection there were 10 people receiving personal care. Availl (Harrow and Hillingdon) is a franchised branch of the Availl company and there are two company directors who own and run the franchise.

The service is required to have a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The previous registered manager left in December 2014 and the current provider had recently applied to CQC to register as the manager.

The service was not being well managed. Systems for the monitoring and improvement of the service were not being followed. People did not always feel the provider was approachable or listened to their concerns. Action was not always taken to address concerns people raised.

We identified shortfalls in the recording of medicines which could place people at risk of medicines not being managed safely.

Although staff had completed an initial training programme, they had not received specific training in topics to meet people’s individual care needs.

People’s gender preference for care staff was not always identified and met.

The provider had not sent notifications about changes to the service, which they are required to do.

Staff recruitment procedures were in place and being followed to ensure suitable staff were employed by the service.

Risk assessments had been carried out to identify any areas of risk to individuals so these could be minimised.

People received help and support with meals if needed and staff noted any changes to people’s health conditions and knew to refer people to their GP for any medical input.

People said staff were kind and caring and said they were treated with respect. Staff understood the importance of maintaining people’s privacy and dignity.

Care records identified people’s needs including any religious and cultural needs and action was taken to provide care staff who were able to meet their needs.

We found five breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and one breach of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.