28 July 2016
During a routine inspection
The service provides support with personal care to people living in their own homes. It also provides some social support and help with domestic tasks if this is needed as part of the care package. At the time of our inspection, the service was providing support to approximately 120 people.
There was a registered manager in post who was also the provider's nominated representative. 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.
People received a service that was safe. Where people needed support with their medicines, staff were trained and assessed to ensure they were competent to assist people safely. There had been problems with ensuring people were supported by sufficient staff. However, improvements were in progress to ensure that staff were able to meet people's needs safely. Staff were recruited in a way that contributed towards protecting people from the employment of staff who were not suitable to work in care. They were aware of their obligations to report any concerns that people were at risk of harm or abuse and of the need to work in a safe way.
People received support from staff who were trained and competent to meet their needs. People felt that their regular care staff understood how to support them properly. Staff recognised the importance of seeking consent from people before they began to deliver care. Training was available to support them to understand people's rights to make decisions about their care and what to do if people were not able to understand the implications of their choices.
Staff understood the importance of making sure that people had enough to eat and access to drinks where this was a part of people's care packages. Where people did not need support with this, staff were aware that they needed to ensure people had drinks in particular in easy reach. Staff were aware of the importance of reporting any concerns about people's health so that they could receive medical advice promptly if it was needed.
People were involved in discussions about their care and staff were aware of people's individual needs and preferences. People had developed warm and caring relationships with their regular staff team, who supported them with respect for their privacy, dignity and independence. People's care was reviewed regularly with them to ensure that staff always understood their current needs and the support they needed to offer to people.
There was room to improve people's confidence in the way that they could raise complaints and concerns and that improvements made in response to complaints would be sustained. However, the management team was aware of common threads in the issues people raised through either complaints or questionnaires and the need to ensure they had good communication with people using the service or their relatives.
People using and working in the service were empowered to express their views about the service. The management team reviewed people's suggestions to see what improvements they needed to make and devoted resources to ensuring these happened. They were open with us about areas of difficulty and their plans to ensure that improvements were made.