01/05/2014
During a routine inspection
Peterborough Community Care Service is a domiciliary care agency that provides support and personal care to approximately 120 people living in their own homes in Peterborough, March, Ely, Spalding and surrounding areas.
19 of the 20 of the people and relatives that responded to our survey told us they were happy with the care and support they received from their particular care staff, but only half of them said they would recommend the service to others. People said the service had not always been reliable, but they had seen some recent improvements.
There was no registered manager, but a new manager had been appointed and had started to make improvements to the service.
There was a history of complaints about the service and people did not feel they had received satisfactory responses to their complaints. Records showed that some investigations into complaints had not been completed by the manager or the provider.
Staff felt unsupported, as they had not had regular meetings, but they told us that they had got to know the people they supported and wanted to do the best for them. People were satisfied, overall, that their individual care staff responded to their needs. A typical comment from a person using the service was, “The carers are good. They do everything just as I need them to.”
We saw that the service had assessed people’s needs and agreed with them a care plan which set out when and how they were assisted by staff. We found the new manager was making sure these plans were reviewed and improvements were being made in the way care was coordinated so that everyone received their care at the time it was planned.
We have told the provider to make improvements to the service to ensure all Regulations of the Health and Social Care Act (2008) are being met. The regulations that were breached relate to managing people’s complaints and supporting workers.