29 January 2014
During an inspection in response to concerns
We carried out this inspection because we had received information of concern about the use of agency staff, the quality of risk assessments and care plans. We also looked at how medicines were handled following a series of safeguarding alerts about the miss-handling of medicines.
We found that people had a care plan that was individual to them and outlined the support they needed. We saw that people were enabled to access the local community and develop their independence skills with the support provided. Each person had appropriate risk assessments and staff understood these documents and the importance of them being adhered to.
We saw medications were handled in a safe and competent manner. Staff spoken with understood the need for medication to be handled in a safe way. They told us that they had received training, supervision and support with medication and told us that any mistakes were down to human error. They also told us that where medication errors were identified further training and support was offered to try and ensure the mistakes were not repeated.
We looked at the recruitment process for staff. The manager told us they had no vacancies in the service and we saw that staff employed had been thoroughly checked prior to the start of their employment. The manager told us they no longer used agency staff as they could not provide consistency in the service. Staff told us they covered any spare shifts amongst themselves.