All inspections: Angel Home Care - Care Quality Commission

Angel Home Care provides personal care and support to people, with learning and physical disabilities, living in their own homes within supported living schemes. The service currently provides care and support to five people.

At the last inspection, the service was rated ‘Good’.

At this inspection, we found the service remained ‘Good’.

People were kept safe because staff had a good knowledge of current, good safeguarding practices and how to apply this when supporting people. People received safe care because risks had been identified and were managed to minimise the risk to people Sufficient numbers of staff were available to ensure people received support as they wanted. People were supported to receive their medicine safely.

People were assisted by suitably trained and supported staff that had the knowledge and skills they needed to do their job effectively. People felt staff had a good knowledge of their support needs.

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

People were complimentary about the quality of food staff prepared for them and told us they were supported in their choice of meal. Health care professionals were involved in supporting people to maintain their health and wellbeing.

People were supported by caring and kind staff who demonstrated a positive regard for the people they were supporting. People had been encouraged to be as independent as possible in all aspects of their lives. Care was planned with each person and people were able to say what activities or support they wanted. Care was reviewed with the person and their relatives to ensure the care provided continued to meet people’s needs.

People and their relatives were aware of how to raise concerns or make complaints and happy with how the service was managed. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service which included seeking feedback from the people who used the service and their relatives.

Further information is in the detailed findings below

This inspection took place on 13 August 2015 and was announced. We gave the provider 72 hours’ notice that we would be visiting the service. This was because the service provides a supported service to people living in their own homes and we wanted to make sure staff would be available to speak with us.

Angel Home Care provides personal care and support to people, with learning and physical disabilities, in their own homes within supported living schemes. The service currently provides care and support for six people.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

Following our last inspection on 31 January 2014, we found the provider was not fully compliant with the regulations we inspected. We had concerns about the provider’s risk assessments. They were not detailed enough for staff to know how to assist people. Staff files were incomplete. There was no evidence of an induction programme to include shadowing an experienced member of staff. There was no evidence staff had been identified as being competent to work unsupervised. The provider sent us an action plan outlining how they would make the improvements and we considered this when carrying out this inspection. We found that the provider had addressed these concerns.

Staff knew how to reduce the risk of harm to people from abuse and unsafe practice. The risk of harm to people receiving the service was assessed. Where people required support with taking their medicine, there were procedures in place.

People felt there were sufficient numbers of staff available to meet their needs. However, some of the staff felt there was a requirement for additional staff. There were procedures in place to recruit staff safely.

People and relatives felt safe and secure with staff supporting their relatives in their homes. They felt staff had the skills and knowledge to care and support people. Staff were trained and supported to care for people. Where appropriate, people were supported by staff to access health and social care professionals when needed. The provider had taken the appropriate action to protect people’s rights.

The staff was caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People’s independence was respected and promoted and staff responded to people’s individual support needs. People felt supported to take part in a range of social and leisure activities.

People felt they could speak with staff about their worries or concerns and they would be listened to and have their concerns addressed.

Everyone felt the quality of the service had greatly improved with the appointment of the current registered manager. The provider had internal quality assurance systems in place to monitor the care and support people received, to ensure it was to a good standard.

An acting manager was in post at the time of our inspection. There were seven packages of care. We spoke with the acting manager, two relatives and one staff. We looked at three care and four staff files and other records regarding the management of the service.

Some people lived in 'supported living' accommodation. This meant that they lived in one house and had individual tenancy agreements so that a staff member would always be at the house to support them.

Relatives were consulted about the support provided. One relative told us the recently requested changes were made to the care provided.

People received individualised care by staff who knew how to support them. One relative told us, "It's always the same staff that come to support X with activities in the community." This meant that people received continuity of care from staff.

People were protected from harm because the provider had systems in place to protect them. One relative told us, "X is happy with the staff. That's important to me."

Staff told us that they felt supported by the acting manager, received supervision and attended staff meetings where they had an opportunity to discuss issues.

We saw that staff carried out some audits. Both relatives spoken with told us that had been asked to comment on the service. We saw that the provider sought the views of the people using the service.

We saw that the management of records could be improved so that people were better protected.

Archived: Angel Home Care

All Inspections

7 March 2017

During a routine inspection

13 August 2015

During a routine inspection

31 January 2014

During a routine inspection