Background to this inspection
Updated
8 September 2018
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 was 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 included a visit to the agency’s office which took place on 23 August 2018. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure the registered manager would be available. The inspection was carried out by an adult social care inspector.
To help us to plan and identify areas to focus on in the inspection we considered all the information we held about the service, including notifications submitted to us by the provider, and information gained from people using the service and their relatives who had contacted CQC to share feedback about the service. We spoke with four people using the service by telephone to find out about their experience of receiving care from the provider and also to one person’s relative. We spoke with the registered manager and five members of staff. We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
During the inspection site visit we looked at documentation including eight people’s care records, risk assessments, six personnel and training files, complaints records, the staff duty roster, meeting minutes and other records relating to the management of the service.
Updated
8 September 2018
The inspection took place on 23 August 2018, and was announced; we gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of the inspection to ensure that the registered manager was available for us to speak with. The service was last inspected in June 2017, and was rated Requires Improvement; improvements were required in the way the provider managed and audited medicines. We asked the provider to send us an action plan setting out what they would do to address this. At this inspection we found that the service had addressed these concerns, and is now rated good.
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and specialist housing. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults in the Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley and Wakefield areas. At the time of the inspection they were providing support to over 250 people.
The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People’s privacy and dignity was upheld, and the provider monitored this through a series of spot checks on care visits. People told us they found staff to have a warm and caring approach when carrying out care visits.
Medicines were managed safely and staff had received appropriate training in this area.
Risks were safely managed, and the provider had appropriate arrangements in place to respond to any safeguarding concerns.
People’s care was regularly reviewed to ensure it met their needs, and changes were made where people required it so that they remained in as good health as possible.
The provider managed complaints well, and had systems in place to ensure it could learn from complaints where appropriate.
The provider had suitable arrangements in place for obtaining and acting in accordance with people’s consent. Where people lacked the mental capacity to give consent to their care, the provider had reached best interest decisions.
People’s nutrition and hydration was well managed, and staff had received a good standard of training
The provider had effective audit systems so that it could monitor and improve the care provided.
Staff told us they received a good level of support from managers within the service.
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