Melton Care Services Limited

Melton Care Services Limited provides care to people living in their own homes. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, 119 people were receiving a service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessment and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not provide care or support to anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person.

Staff were recruited safely, however the provider needed to ensure they consistently followed their recruitment policy.

People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff had received safeguarding training and knew how to recognise and report any form of abuse.

Risks associated with people’s individual care needs, including the environment were assessed, planned for and monitored. Care staff were knowledgeable about known risks and actions required of them to keep people safe.

Written guidance for staff about people’s known health conditions and the impact on the person and their care was limited. However, staff were found to be knowledgeable about individual care and support needs, and the registered manager had plans in place to make improvements.

There were enough staff to meet people’s care needs. People received care from regular staff who they spoke highly of. Care calls were monitored to ensure calls were on time and staff provided care in accordance with people’s assessed needs.

Staff completed ongoing training and support; the registered manager agreed to increase the frequency staff received supervision meetings. Spot checks to review staff competency were completed.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were supported with their prescribed medicines safely. Care records were monitored to ensure people received their medicines as required. Systems were in place to respond to accidents and incidents.

Infection prevention and control best practice guidance was followed. Staff wore personal protective equipment to reduce the risk of cross contamination and infection.

People who used the service and staff received opportunities to share their experience of the service.

The registered manager had systems and processes that assessed, monitored and reviewed the quality and safety of the service.

People spoke positively and complementary about the care and support they received. This included how caring and compassionate the staff were and the organisation, communication and responsiveness of the registered manager.

Rating at last inspection

The last rated inspection for this service was good (published 8 January 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Melton Care Services Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendation

We have made a recommendation about the provider's oversight and leadership practice.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

This was the first comprehensive inspection carried out at Melton Care Services since they registered with CQC in August 2017.

Melton Care Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. On the day of our visit, they were providing care for 50 people.

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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The provider had systems in place to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service; they acted upon their findings and used the learning from these to drive improvements.

People’s risks were assessed and reviewed regularly or as their needs changed; people received their care as planned to mitigate their known risks.

People received care from staff they knew most of the time. People received care from staff that had received training and support to carry out their roles.

Staff understood their roles and responsibilities to safeguard people from the risk of harm.

People were supported to access relevant health and social care professionals. There were systems in place to manage medicines in a safe way.

Staff demonstrated their understanding of the Mental Capacity Act, 2005 (MCA). Staff gained people's consent before providing personal care. People were involved in the planning of their care which was person centred and updated regularly.

People were encouraged to make decisions about how their care was provided and their privacy and dignity were protected and promoted. People had developed positive relationships with staff. Staff had a good understanding of people's needs and preferences.

People were supported to express themselves, their views were acknowledged and acted upon and care and support was delivered in the way that people chose and preferred.

People using the service and their relatives knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint. There was a complaints system in place and people were confident that any complaints would be responded to appropriately.