Archived: Blandford Office

Blandford Office is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to 72 people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older people and younger adults some of whom have a physical disability, sensory impairment or dementia.

Not everyone using Blandford Office receives a 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.

The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

People’s risks were assessed and control measures put in place. Staff had a good understanding of the risks people faced and how to minimise them. People told us they felt safe and their relatives felt that their loved ones were kept safe.

People were supported by staff who had received safeguarding training and knew how to keep people safe from harm or abuse. Staff were able to confidently tell us how they would report concerns of potential harm or abuse both internally or external to the service if required.

The service had a recruitment and selection process that helped reduce the risk of unsuitable staff supporting people. People received their medicines on time and as prescribed. Staff understood the importance of infection prevention and control and wore personal protective equipment appropriately when supporting people. Accidents and incidents were logged, analysed and the learning from these shared with the team to reduce the chance of them happening again.

People were involved in decisions about their care and subsequent reviews. People were supported by staff who understood the importance of offering choice and support in line with what they needed and wanted. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff consistently asked for people’s consent before offering to support them. Where people lacked capacity to make particular decisions they were supported by staff who were trained and practiced in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Staff consistently demonstrated a kind and caring approach towards people. One person told us, “As far as I’m concerned they are very good. They treat me very well.” People’s privacy and dignity was supported at all times. Staff were respectful towards people and knew them well. People were encouraged to maintain their independence. One person said, “I haven’t met anybody that interferes.” The service recognised people’s diversity and was promoting a workshop for staff to increase their awareness of people’s support needs in later life when they do not family.

People were supported in line with their assessed needs. Where people’s needs changed their package of care was amended to reflect this. People felt the service listened to them and made changes to support their requests. People and their relatives knew how to complain and told us they had confidence that any issues would be investigated and resolved to their satisfaction. We saw that complaints had been resolved in line with the service’s policy.

Staff had been trained in providing end of life care and had given support to people and their relatives on these occasions. Feedback from people’s families demonstrated the high regard they had for the support they and their loved ones had received from staff at these times.

There was an open and supportive culture at the service. Staff were encouraged to contribute their views and ideas. The staff got on well and told us they enjoyed working for the service. One staff member said, “I love everything about my job.” Staff told us they felt supported and listened to. Staff achievements were recognised, shared with them and celebrated.

Staff were given opportunities and support to achieve qualifications or gain further knowledge to help improve their practice and promote career progression. Regular communication had helped develop and maintain a team focused on providing a good service that always looked to improve. The service sought feedback from people, staff, and relatives via surveys and forums.

A range of audits were undertaken to help maintain the quality of the service and identify where improvements could be made.

The service had established and maintained good working relationships with other agencies such as community nurses and GP surgeries. This had supported people to remain well in their homes for longer and to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.

This inspection took place on 18, 20 and 25 April 2016. It was carried out by one inspector.

Blandford Office is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service provided personal care and support for 68 people. The core hours of the service were 7 am to 10 pm. There was an on-call service available from 6.30am – 11pm.

There was a registered manager. 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.

People received an assessment to establish what their needs were and how they would like to receive care and support. They had personalised care plans which were agreed with them and were reviewed on an annual basis or sooner if required. People told us they were offered choices and care workers knew their preferences. Peoples nutritional needs were assessed and care workers were able to describe to us how they would monitor people’s food and drink to ensure they had sufficient. Care workers described to us actions they would take if they had any concerns about any aspect of a person’s health and well-being including food and drink.

People’s risks were assessed and plans developed to minimise the risk of them coming to harm. There was sufficient guidance for staff to ensure they supported people safely. The service worked closely with other agencies to ensure people were provided with appropriate advice and support to enable them to enjoy living in their own homes.

Staff were aware of what constitutes abuse and what actions they should take if they thought someone was being abused. Relevant checks were carried out before staff started work. For example references were obtained and criminal record checks were completed.

Medicines were managed safely. Staff had received training and there were monitoring systems in place to check people had received the correct medicines at the right time.

People and staff had confidence in the management team and felt able to raise concerns or issues. People were involved in decisions about their own care and how the agency was ran.

Management were committed to making continual improvements to the quality of care. The service was active within the local community and fostered links such as to support people to attend social groups as well as facilitating dementia friendly local businesses.

There were sufficient staff to ensure people received their visits as planned. People told us they mostly received visits on time and were contacted if the care worker was running late due to traffic or an emergency. People told us staff were kind and caring and we saw positive interactions between people and staff.

Staff told us they felt supported and there were processes in place to ensure they received regular supervision. Staff received sufficient training to enable them to carry out their jobs effectively.

The quality of the service was monitored on an on-going basis through observations of care workers during visits as well as consideration of accidents and incidents and feedback form people and staff.