Archived: Care At Your Home

Updated 3 August 2015

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 registered persons are 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 announced. The registered provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service. We did this because the manager is sometimes out of the office supporting staff or visiting people who use the service. We needed to be sure that they would be available to contribute to the inspection.

We visited the administration office of the service on 16 June 2015 and the inspection team consisted of one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using services or caring for someone who requires this type of service. They supported the inspection process by carrying out telephone calls to people who used the service.

During our inspection we spoke with the manager and five members of staff. This included two field supervisors, a training manager and two administrative staff who were responsible for organising care workers’ visits. A field supervisor is a senior member of the care team and they are responsible for supervising care workers. In addition to this, we spoke by telephone with 13 people who use the service and with six of their relatives. Following the inspection we also spoke by telephone with three further members of staff who provided care for people.

Before our inspection visit to the service we reviewed notifications of incidents that the registered provider had sent us since the last inspection. In addition, we contacted local commissioners of the service who pay for some people to use the service and health and social care professionals who support people who use the service. We did this to obtain their views about how well the service was meeting people’s needs.

In addition, we looked at the care records of seven people who used the service, reviewed the records for five staff and records which related to the management of the service. This included staff training information, staffing levels, health and safety and arrangements for managing complaints.

Updated 3 August 2015

We undertook an announced inspection of Care At Your Home on 16 June 2015. Care At Your Home provides a personal care service to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 60 people were receiving a personal care service.

There was not a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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. There was a manager in post and they had started the process to add the service to their current registration with the Care Quality Commission.

We last inspected Care At Your Home in April 2014. At that inspection we found the service was not meeting all the essential standards that we assessed. We found that the registered provider could not demonstrate they had on-going quality monitoring process in place which highlighted when improvements were required.

At this inspection we found that the registered provider had ensured that people’ care records had been updated and reflected their current care needs and quality processes were in place.

The Care Quality Commission is required by law to monitor how a provider applies the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and to report on what we find. The manager and care staff understood the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and had received appropriate training.

When people were visited by care staff they said that they were caring and considerate and they felt safe with them.

There were suitable arrangements in place to ensure people received their medicines safely and checks were undertaken on care staff before they started to work for the service. This ensured that only suitable staff were recruited to provide care and support to people.

Systems were in place to make sure care staff were provided with relevant training so that they had the skills to do their job.

Care plans and risk assessments were in place detailing how people wished to be supported and people were involved in making decisions about their care.

People were supported to eat and drink. Staff liaised with people’s doctors and other healthcare professionals as required. Generally, care staff were able to accommodate last minute changes to appointments as requested by the person who used the service or their relatives.

The manager undertook checks to review the quality of the service provided to people who used the service. There was positive feedback from all staff about the manager of the service and they told us they felt well supported by them.

People and their relatives knew how to raise concerns and we saw evidence that these were actioned.