Archived: Support Solutions

Updated 30 March 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 26 January 2016 and announced. The provider was given 24 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be available at the office to meet with us.

The inspection was varied out by one inspector. Before our inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service. We reviewed all of the notifications and safeguarding alerts we had received. A statutory notification is information about important events which the service is required to send to the Commission by law.

We contacted Healthwatch, which is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. They did not provide any feedback. We spoke with the local authority commissioning and contracts officer from City of York Council who provided positive feedback about the service.

After the office visit we spoke, on the telephone, with one person who used the service and three relatives. We tried to speak with a further three people but they were unavailable.

On our visit to the office we spoke with the registered manager and administrator. Following the office visit we spoke with four members of staff, a specialist community nurse and a support worker from a local charity.

We looked at documents and records that related to people’s care, and the management of the service such as training records, quality assurance records, policies and procedures. We looked at four care plan records and three staff files.

Updated 30 March 2016

This inspection took place on 26 and 29 January 2016. This was the first inspection of the service which registered in May 2015.

Support Solutions provides care and support to people who live in their own homes in York and surrounding areas. The office is situated in Tadcaster. The service is registered to provide the regulated activity personal care. The service supports younger people with complex health and social care needs, people with learning disabilities and older people, including people with dementia.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

At the time of our inspection the service supported 21 people living in their own homes and provided a total of 335 hours of care per week.

People were provided with safe care. There were sufficient staff available to meet people’s needs and we were told people were provided with a consistent team of staff who they knew and trusted. Each week people were sent a copy of their rota in advance so they knew which staff would be supporting them. Staff were introduced to people before they provided support. The registered manager was committed to recruiting a high calibre of staff.

The service had an up to date safeguarding policy and staff understood how to identify types of abuse and who they should report their concerns to. The registered manager demonstrated a sound understanding of their role in relation to safeguarding adults.

Medicines were administered safely. Staff had received appropriate training and the service had an up to date medicines policy based on good practice guidance.

Risk assessments and risk management plans provided staff with detailed guidance about how to prevent avoidable harm whilst recognising people’s rights and freedom.

The service worked within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act and sought consent from people before they provided support. People had been assessed, where appropriate, as being unable to make their own decision in relation to a specific issue. When this was the case best interest decisions were recorded. These involved the person, their representative and appropriate health and social care professionals.

Staff were well supported and morale was high. Staff had access to regular training, supervision and told us they were confident in approaching the registered manager at any time.

The service had developed effective relationships with health and social care professionals and understood the importance of seeking their support to ensure people received safe and effective care.

People and their relatives described a good standard of care. We saw evidence people were involved in the assessment, care planning and reviews of their care. Care reviews provided people with an opportunity to discuss the experience of receiving care as well as an update of their physical care needs.

The service had a complaints policy which people had access to and people told us the registered manager was approachable. They said they would be happy to discuss any concerns they had and felt confident the registered manager would take these seriously and resolve them.

There were effective audits and quality assurance systems in place to monitor the service and direct observations of staff took place to ensure they were delivering good care and to identify any development needs.

The registered manager was committed to ongoing service development and improvement. They recognised the strengths of the service and knew what they wanted to do to further improve the service.