Background to this inspection
Updated
3 May 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team: One inspector carried out this inspection.
Service and service type: The service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes to children and adults of all ages. Not everyone using Slough Crossroads receives a regulated activity. Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people receiving 'personal care'; help with tasks relating to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we consider any wider social care provided.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are 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 site visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
Inspection site visit activity started on 28 March 2019 when we visited the office location to see the registered manager and to review care records and policies and procedures. Between the 28 March and 5 April 2019, we contacted people, their relatives and staff to get further feedback.
What we did: Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service. This included notifications about incidents the provider must tell us about, such as deaths of people using the service. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR is information we require providers to send to us to give us key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
During the inspection, we looked at a range of documents including the provider's policies and procedures, compliments the service had received and quality assurance reports. We looked at three people’s care and medicines records. We looked at three staff records including recruitment information. We spoke with the registered manager, administrator and three staff. Following the inspection, we spoke with four relatives by telephone. We received feedback from two professionals that work with the service.
Updated
3 May 2019
About the service:
Slough Crossroads is a domiciliary care agency (DCA) registered to provide personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the Slough area. It provides a service to both younger and older adults. At the time of the inspection the agency was providing personal care and support to six people.
People’s experience of using this service:
Relatives of people using the service, gave consistent positive feedback about how pleased they were with the service and staff. They described the staff as caring and supportive. People’s privacy and dignity was respected by staff. People were supported to be independent and were in control of the support they had.
People’s care plans were individual and described their needs and preferences. They were person centred and described ways staff could support people to access the things they enjoyed and to provide emotional support.
Relatives of people using the service told us that they had no concerns about the safety or well-being of their family members in the presence of care staff. There were sufficient numbers of safely recruited and appropriately trained staff. Individual risks were identified and staff had risk management guidelines and used these to inform the support they provided to people.
People received their care from consistent staff who arrived when expected, or alerted people if delays occurred. Information was shared effectively amongst the staff team to ensure people received consistent care. The provider worked with other professionals to help people receive coordinated support.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were supported to access health professionals and maintain good diet and nutrition.
People were issued with information about the service which explained how to make a complaint if they were unhappy.
Relatives of people in the service, staff and professionals we received feedback from had confidence in the management of the service. The registered manager and staff recognised their roles and responsibilities. Quality and safety issues were monitored across the service by the registered manager and the provider.
Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 11 May 2016).
Why we inspected: This was a scheduled, planned inspection based on the service’s previous rating.
Follow up: We will monitor all intelligence received about the service to inform the assessment of the risk profile of the service and to ensure the next planned inspection is scheduled accordingly.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.