Archived: De Vere Care - Southend on Sea

Updated 21 February 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection site visit activity started on 13 December 2018 and ended on 14 December 2018. It included reviewing all the documentation that was held in the office. We visited the office location on 13 and 14 December 2018 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

As part of our planning we looked at notifications received by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also looked at safeguarding concerns reported to CQC. This is where one or more person’s health, wellbeing or human rights may not have been properly protected and they may have suffered harm, abuse or neglect.

During the inspection we spoke with 5 people who used the service, two relatives, members of the senior management team, the manager and two of the office staff. We looked at records in relation to four people’s care, five staff recruitment folders and the systems in place for monitoring the quality of the service.

Updated 21 February 2019

De Vere Care Southend provides care services to people within their own home. Care services include personal care. The service provided are either through private arrangement, social services funding or clinical care group. The service covers Southend on Sea and surrounding areas in Essex. At the time of our inspection the service was providing personal care to 45 people.

Our last inspection of this service in May 2018 highlighted several concerns and we imposed conditions on the service that they could not take on new care support packages without prior application to the Care Quality Commission. The service was rated Inadequate overall and placed in special measures. The provider wrote to us to inform us of the actions they had taken since to improve the service. Significant improvements had been made since our last inspection, such as ensuring staff attend calls on time, improved recruitment processes and better managerial and provider oversight to ensure good care delivery and strong quality processes.

The service is required to have 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. At the time of our inspection the manager was going through their registration process with the commission.

Staff delivered support effectively and care was provided in a way that promoted people’s independence and wellbeing, whilst people’s safety was ensured. Staff were recruited and employed upon completion of appropriate checks as part of a robust recruitment process. Sufficient numbers of staff enabled people’s individual needs to be met in line with their assessed needs. Trained staff dispensed medications and monitored people’s health satisfactorily.

Staff understood their responsibilities and how to keep people safe. People’s rights were also protected because management and staff understood the legal framework of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

The manager and staff ensured access to healthcare services were readily available to people and worked with a range of health professionals, such as social workers, community mental health nurses and GPs to implement care and support plans.

Staff were respectful and compassionate towards people ensuring privacy and dignity was valued. People were supported in a person-centred way by staff who understood their roles in relation to encouraging independence whilst mitigating potential risks. People were supported to identify their own interests and pursue them with the assistance of staff. Person centred social activities took place within the service. A complaints procedure was in place and had been implemented appropriately by the manager.

Systems were in place to make sure that people’s views were gathered. These included regular meetings, direct interactions with people and questionnaires being distributed to people, relatives and healthcare professionals. The service was assisted to run effectively using quality monitoring audits carried out by the senior management and the manager, which identified any improvements needed and actions were taken.