Background to this inspection
Updated
29 October 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 29 September and 04 October 2016. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a supported living service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.
One inspector carried out the inspection.
Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the provider and the service. This included the last inspection report and statutory notifications the provider sent us about incidents and events that affected people using the service.
During our visits to the service we spoke with six people using the service, three members of staff and two of the provider’s management team. We reviewed care records and risk assessments for three people and checked other records, including records of staff recruitment and deployment, medication records and audits and checks the provider, manager and staff carried out in the service.
Following the inspection we spoke with the relatives of three people using the service and three health and social care professionals to get their views on the support people received.
Updated
29 October 2016
This inspection took place on 29 September and 04 October 2016. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in.
The last inspection of the service was in October 2013 when we found the provider was meeting all of the standards we inspected.
Care Assist Domiciliary Care Services is a supported living service for up to 12 men and women with mental health care needs. People have their own, self-contained flats in the location and there is a team of staff on site to provide care and support. When we carried out this inspection, 12 people were using the service. 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.
The provider had systems in place to protect people using the service and staff had the training they needed to provide safe care and support.
The provider carried out checks on new staff before they started to work in the service and there were enough staff to meet people’s care and support needs.
Staff supported people with their physical and mental health care needs and made sure people received the medicines they needed safely.
Staff had the training they needed to care for and support people using the service. The provider supported staff and had systems to ensure they received regular supervision and an annual appraisal of their performance.
People told us staff supported them to prepare food they enjoyed.
Staff who supported people using the service were kind and caring. They respected people’s privacy and dignity and offered people choices about aspects of their daily lives.
The provider assessed, recorded and reviewed people’s care and support needs with them. Their support plans reflected their individual preferences and included information about what was important to the person.
People told us their health, community living skills and mental wellbeing had improved since they moved to the service.
People took part in a range of social and leisure activities in the service and the local community.
There was a positive culture and people using the service, their representatives and staff were happy with the service and thought it was well managed. They told us they were able to contribute their views and felt listened to.
The provider had systems for auditing the service and plans for continuous improvements.