This inspection took place on 01, 05 and 23 October 2015.
The last inspection of Carestaff Northwest took place on 31 July 2013. At that time we found that the provider was fully compliant with all the regulations assessed.
Carestaff Northwest provides domiciliary care for people in their own homes. Carestaff Northwest offer services for people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health, dementia, sensory impairments and people transitioning from hospital back to home.
Carestaff Northwest, as a condition of its registration, should have a registered 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.
There was a full time registered manager at the service. The registered manager was available throughout the inspection. We found that the registered manager was fully committed to their role and demonstrated a full understanding of people’s needs who were receiving services from Carestaff Northwest.
At the time of the inspection Carestaff Northwest was providing outreach services for two people. We spoke with people who received services and, or their representatives. People told us that they felt safe when being supported and said that staff were kind and caring.
The service had systems in place for reporting accidents and incidents. Staff told us that they felt confident to raise concerns.
People who used the service were provided with personalised care which was based on their individual needs, wishes and goals.
We looked at staff recruitment and training files. We found that systems were in place to ensure that staff were safely recruited. Criminal record checks and employment references were obtained prior to staff being offered work.
We spoke with staff and they told us that they enjoyed working at Carestaff Northwest. Staff told us that they felt supported and had been suitably trained to allow them to provide safe and effective support for people who accessed the service.
People who used the service told us they felt involved in care decisions and we saw that service users and, or their relatives had been involved in care plan review meetings.
We found that people were happy with the service they were provided and saw that care plans had been written with full consideration for the person’s individual needs, preferences and wishes.
People were allocated support workers and we could see that the service adhered to providing consistency. One person told us that they had raised concerns about lack of support worker consistency; however this issue had been resolved.
We found that people were able to interview staff before a care package was agreed. This meant that people felt fully involved in staff selection and this facilitated person centred support.
The provider had systems in place to access, monitor and evaluate the quality of care and support provided for people who accessed the service. Auditing systems were used for quality assurance and we found that actions were taken when needed.