Archived: St Lucy Domiciliary Care

Updated 15 December 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.

The inspection took place on 9 November 2016 with one inspector and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours' notice because the location was a domiciliary care agency and we needed to be sure someone would be present in the office.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed the records held on the service. The service was last inspected on 14 February 2014. At that time the service was meeting the essential standards of safety and quality and no concerns were identified. We looked at previous inspection reports, statutory notifications (issues providers are legally required to notify us about), and other enquiries received from or about the service.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider's Information Return (PIR). The PIR is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection we spoke with three people and two relatives. We reviewed three people's records in detail, including care plans and risk assessments. We also spoke with three care staff, the deputy manager, and owner. The registered manager was unavailable on the day of our inspection. We reviewed three personnel and training files. Other records we reviewed included the records held within the service to show how the provider reviewed the quality of the service. This included a range of policies and procedures, audits, and questionnaires to people who use the service and professionals who support them. We contacted health care professionals who supported people who used the service to gather their views.

Updated 15 December 2016

The inspection was announced and took place on 9 November 2016.

St Lucy Domiciliary Care is a small family run service for people with mental health support needs starting to manage their tenancies in the community. The service supports five people who live in accommodation in North London. The accommodation is separate from the support service and each person has their own tenancy agreement. The service offers a 24 hour support service with people using the service accessing it for support to complete daily living tasks. The service is registered to provide support to people with their personal care.

During the inspection the registered manager was not available. 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 were protected from harm and abuse. There was a high level of awareness from staff and people using the service of abuse and what it might look like and what to do if someone was worried about themselves or somebody else in the service. Staff were aware of the whistleblowing policy.

The care staff that we spoke to expressed an understanding of the scope of mental health support that people needed. We looked at training records in individual staff files and found a range of mandatory yearly training records.

Positive, caring relationships had been developed with people. From speaking to care staff, the deputy manager and the provider we saw that the ethos of the service was to help people move towards rehabilitation at their own pace. Care staff spoke about the people they supported with fondness and pride for the work people had put into remaining stable.

There was a culture of listening to people using the service and different opportunities for people to feedback what they thought and ideas they had. The service had a complaints policy and procedure in place which outlined how people can complain and response times. People received personalised care that was responsive to their individual needs and preferences. People told us that the service was responsive in changing the times of their support and accommodating last minute additional appointments when needed.

We saw that the management team were well respected and liked. People using the service and staff all without exception said they felt supported and trusted the management team. There was a monthly audit completed by the provider which covered the areas of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Staff had regular supervision and appraisals and the records we looked at showed there were no gaps in the frequency of these, so continuous support was in place.