Archived: Comfort Call-Whinndale

Updated 31 May 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 two inspectors and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type:

The service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in specialist housing.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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:

Our inspection was unannounced.

Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 15 April 2019. We visited the office location on to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures, and spoke with people living at the housing scheme on the same day.

What we did:

Before our inspection we reviewed all the information we held about the service, including notifications sent to us about key events and incidents which the provider is required to send to us. We gathered information from other sources including commissioners of services, safeguarding teams and Healthwatch. We did not receive any information of concern.

During the inspection we looked at records including two staff recruitment files, three care plans, medicines administration records and other information relating to the running of the service. We spoke with three people who used the service and two members of staff.

Updated 31 May 2019

About the service: Whinndale is an extra care housing scheme for people who live independently within their own self-contained homes. The housing scheme is managed by South Yorkshire Housing Association. Comfort Call-Whinndale provides domiciliary care services for people living there. There were 29 people being supported at the time of the inspection. The registered manager confirmed people are able to choose other providers of domiciliary care if they wished.

People’s experience of using this service:

The measures put in place to protect people from harm were not always robust. Information about risks associated with care and support needs was not always documented, call management lacked oversight and control, and there were persistent errors in the recording of medicines that people had been given. People’s complaints were not well managed. We made a recommendation about improving staff knowledge about reporting concerns about people’s safety.

People said they got on well with staff, and said they felt staff were mindful of their dignity and privacy. Staff were recruited safely and used appropriate protective equipment such as gloves and aprons. Staff had formal and informal support and there was a programme of training in place. We made a recommendation about improving the content of one piece of training.

People said they were offered choice and asked for consent, however we found some issues with documentation about decision making.

Care plans were brief and lacked evidence people were involved in writing them. Information about how people were supported to remain independent was lacking. There was no information about the kind of additional support people may need at the end of their lives.

We identified two breaches of regulation relating to person-centred care and safe care and treatment.

The processes to monitor and measure quality in the service were weak. When issues were found the action taken as a result did not always resolve them. There was a lack of drive to involve people and staff in the running of the service.

Rating at last inspection: This was our first inspection of the service since the change of provider in 2018.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

Enforcement: Please see the ‘action we have told the provider to take’ section towards the end of the report.

Follow up: We have asked the provider to send us an action plan to show how the required improvements will be made. 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.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk