This was an announced inspection, which took place on the 06 April, 09 April and 10 April 2016. Notice of the inspection was given to make sure that the relevant staff and people we needed to speak with were available. Contact was made with people, their relatives and staff on 09 April and 10 April 2016 for their opinions.Haydock Community Care is a small domiciliary care agency that provides care and support to people in their own homes within the St. Helens area. On the date of the inspection the service supported 35 people and employed 38 staff including the registered manager.
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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
We found a number of breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010. We found breaches of Regulations 9, 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
We checked medicines management. We found that clear and accurate records were not being kept of medicines administered by care workers. It was not possible to determine what medicines were given, or if medicines had been given safely and at the correct time. Care plans and risk assessments did not support the safe handling of some people’s medicines.
We checked how the service followed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The MCA governs decision-making on behalf of adults who may not be able to make particular decisions for themselves. The requirements of the MCA were not being followed.
There were no systems in place to monitor the quality of the service. There were a number of areas not monitored such as management of medicines, daily records and care plans, risk assessments, staff training, staff recruitment and staff supervision.
Safe recruitment procedures were not followed. Staff did not have references in some instances, not all staff had a clear police record and where concerns were identified on the police check no action was taken to reduce the potential risks.
Training was not always in place, some staff reported that training for new staff was not sufficient. Supervision of staff was not planned or delivered in order to make sure that staff continued to develop in their job role.
Care and support was not planned and delivered in a person centred manner. We saw examples of task orientated care planning that did not assess people’s individual needs and preferences.
There were safeguarding policies and procedures in place. Staff were knowledgeable about what actions they would take if abuse was suspected. They were all able to state that they would appropriately report concerns for them to be dealt with.
The service is a small service with the majority of staff working there for several years. This means that staff develop caring and supportive relationships with people. As a result we received many complimentary comments from people and their relatives. We were told by everyone we spoke with that staff were kind, caring and had good relationships with the people they support.
People and their relatives told us that most of the time they received support from consistent members of staff. They also told us that staff arrived promptly, and that they stayed for the right amount of time. They told us that this gave them confidence in their staff and they felt safe with the care and support they received.
People and their relatives were extremely complimentary about the caring nature of staff. They told us that staff were knowledgeable about the people that they were supporting and that care was provided with patience and kindness. People also commented that their privacy and dignity was respected.