This inspection took place between 27 April and 20 May 2015. The initial visit to the service office was unannounced.
The service provides care to people who live in their own home.
There was a manager in place. 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.
The provider had a safeguarding adults policy for staff that gave guidance on the identification and reporting of suspected abuse. Staff we spoke with were aware of how to report suspected abuse.
An assessment of people’s needs was carried out prior to the service providing care. This included risks to the individual receiving care and environmental risks. Risk reviews for people were carried out on a planned basis and in the light of any new information.
There were sufficient staff to support people safely and provide care. When the service staff were running late or in danger of missing calls to provide care to people, the service had back-up plans in place to deliver the care to people.
We saw that care plans had been reviewed on a systematic basis. A member of staff informed us of the procedure used which included the manager overseeing the review notes and updating information onto a computer generated care record. The service was providing support to a number of people that had received care from a previous provider. Confirming the support required and writing up the care plans was being attended to at the time of our inspection. The plan to update the individual care plans was to write up first those with the most changes as a result of the care reviews.
Staff had received training to provide medication safely and the service had medication policies and procedures. We saw gaps in the medication record of one person and this was explained to us that the matter was being resolved with the person and their family so all parties were clear about who and when medication was being administered. The service had a well-equipped training facility and staff had received training in mental capacity.
People and their relatives gave positive feedback about the care staff that provided care. The service provided both supervision and a yearly appraisal to the staff. Staff we spoke with considered they were well supported especially as they could raise matters as they happened with the service senior staff.
People and their relatives told us they were involved in the planning of their care and support. They felt that the service listened to their views. They told us that when they contacted the service their calls were always answered and staff tried to support and help them. At the time of our inspection the service informed us there were no outstanding complaints, although we found all of the senior staff did not have access to the service complaints log. This has been changed since our inspection and now all of the senior staff can access the log and record subsequent action taken.
The service had systems in place to monitor the quality of service.