27 November 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
MHA Care at Home – Wesley Branch is an extra care service. The service provides personal care to older people who live in their own apartments in a modern building. At the time of our inspection there were 12 people using the service.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. 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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The provider's quality assurance system was not always effective and had not led to actions to improve the service or mitigate risks. Audits did not always identify shortfalls and where they did, actions were not always completed.
Medicine records were not always completed in line with the provider’s policy and did not accurately reflect medicine administered. Staff told us they had raised concerns with management about the safe management of medicines. Staff were unsure what had happened as a result of those concerns.
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. However, the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice. For example, we found conflicting information regarding Lasting Power of Attorney in people’s care and support records.
People felt positive about the care they received and felt the staff were friendly and kind. They told us they felt safe and were looked after by a consistent team of people. They told us the registered manager was very approachable and responded to concerns or queries in a prompt and efficient manner.
Staff told us this was a positive place to work and they felt supported by their colleagues and the registered manager was approachable and they could speak up if they needed to. Staff had training, including safeguarding and felt they had the skills and abilities to keep people safe. There were enough staff to support the people living there.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 1 October 2018).
Why we inspected
We carried out this inspection due to the length of time since the last inspection.
This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions Safe and Well-led. 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 changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for MHA Care at Home – Wesley Branch on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to medicines management and effective governance at this inspection.
We have made recommendations in the safe key questions in relation to the Mental Capacity Act. Please see these sections for further details.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.