The people we spoke with, told us how well supported they were by the staff who visited them in their homes. We were told 'The staff are always consistent with me'. 'The staff have been marvellous'. 'I can't praise my carer highly enough'. 'I'm very very fond of all of the staff'. These comments are evidence people felt satisfied with the staff who supported them.We read care plans that were up to date and explained what support people needed clearly and informatively. Although there were no up to date fire safety risk assessments being kept in people's homes. Fire safety risk assessments are required to look at possible risks, work out how likely they are to happen and put in place action to protect people's safety.
People felt safe being cared for by the staff from the agency. There were systems in place to protect people from the risks of abuse. We found there were no restraint protocols in place for the safe use of restraint with people who used the service. Restraint protocols protect the legal rights of people who use the service. They are also guidelines in order for risks involved in using restraint to be anticipated, minimised and/or reduced.
People were supported by staff who had done training and updated themselves in their knowledge of people's needs. People were being supported by staff who had not been consistently supported and supervised in their work. This meant the overall quality of the work that staff did was not being formally monitored and checked. The lack of a structured programme of staff supervision could have a direct impact on outcomes for people who use the service.
The quality of the services people received had been monitored and reviewed. We saw that there was a system of quality monitoring involving people who used the service.
Before we carried out our review of the agency we had been made aware of complaints that had been raised about the service. We did not directly investigate the complaints because the powers given to us by parliament do not include the statutory authority to carry out investigations into complaints. However, we used the information to help guide the process we followed to carry out our inspection of the agency. We also used the information to inform our judgments of the overall quality of outcomes for people who use the service.