Background to this inspection
Updated
4 April 2019
The inspection:
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) 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 Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection team consisted of one adult social care inspector.
Service and service type:
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal and nursing care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to children, younger and older adults and people with complex health needs.
The manager had recently applied to the Care Quality Commission to become the registered manager. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
The inspection was announced. We gave the service three days’ notice of the inspection site visit because we needed to be sure someone would be present.
We visited the office location on 19 February 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We then contacted people who used the service and staff on 23 February 2019.
What we did:
We reviewed information we had received about the service. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about. We assessed the 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. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection, we looked at three people’s care records, and records relating to the management of the service, including staff training records, audits and meeting minutes. Following the inspection, we spoke with one person who used the service, four relatives and four staff.
Updated
4 April 2019
About the service:
Interserve Healthcare Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides services to children, younger and older adults, people with learning disabilities, people with physical disabilities and complex health needs. At the time of inspection 22 people were receiving support.
Not everyone using Interserve Healthcare Limited receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service:
People who used the service and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. However, the policies and systems in the service required reviewing to support this practice.
People’s healthcare needs were being met and overall medicines were being managed safely.
People were protected against avoidable harm, abuse, neglect and discrimination. The care they received was safe.
Care plans were up to date and detailed what care and support people wanted and needed. Risk assessments were in place and showed what action had been taken to mitigate identified risks.
People's likes, preferences and dislikes were assessed, and care packages met people's desired
expectations.
Staff were being recruited safely and there were mostly enough staff to take care of people. Staff were receiving appropriate training and they told us the training was good and relevant to their role. Staff were supported by the manager and were receiving formal supervision where they could discuss their ongoing development needs.
There were a complaints procedure and people knew how to complain.
There were mixed views of the manager, however, the manager had only been in post two weeks. The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of care. However, these were not always effective.
Rating at last inspection:
This was the services first inspection.
Why we inspected:
This was a planned inspection.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.