Shaw Community Services Limited (DCA) - Herefordshire Branch

Updated 12 April 2019

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 was undertaken by one adult social care inspector.

Service and service type: Shaw Community Services Limited (DCA) - Herefordshire Branch is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care support to people in their own homes.

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: We gave the service 24 hours' notice of the inspection visit because it is small and we needed to be sure that someone would be available.

What we did:

Before the inspection

• We reviewed notifications we received from the service in line with their legal obligations.

• We looked at information the provider had sent us about the service in the Provider Information Return (PIR).

During the inspection

• We looked at the care records belonging to five people using the service. Five staff recruitment records, medicine administration charts and other records relevant to the quality monitoring of the service.

• We reviewed records of safeguarding investigations, accidents, incidents and complaints.

• We discussed quality assurance processes and checked recruitment, supervision and training information.

• We spoke with six people who used the service and observed interactions between them and their staff.

• We spoke with three relatives of people using the service.

• We spoke with five care staff members, the care supervisor, care coordinator, the operations manager and the registered manager.

Updated 12 April 2019

About the service: Shaw Community Services Limited (DCA) - Herefordshire Branch is registered to provide personal care and supported living services. This service provides care [and support] to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is [bought] [or] [rented], and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care [and support] service.

The provider registered this service with us to provide personal care and support for people with a range of varying needs including dementia, who live in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 32 people received support in the extra care scheme and 7 people with personal care in the local community.

People’s experience of using this service: The people using the service felt safe and had confidence in the provider to act on any concerns. People told us, “I feel safe I have no worries. I have people around me that actually care about me and I get on well with all the staff”, and “The staff are brilliant, very competent and know exactly what they are doing”, and “I have totally trust in the staff when they provide my care, the [staff] know what I need and do a great job, no complaints”, and “The service really is tailored to my [relative] needs. They provide a brilliant service that is flexible to meet our needs”.

Sufficient numbers of staff had been recruited. Safe recruitment practices had been followed, and all records required were in place.

Everyone we spoke with told us that they mainly enjoyed the food prepared by staff. People's nutritional needs were known and met by staff. People told us they always received their choice of food and enjoyed the meals prepared for them.

Consent to care and treatment was sought in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People told us staff always asked for their consent before providing support.

People told us staff were kind and caring and that their dignity was protected by staff. This was also reflected within the responses to surveys and within the compliment cards and letters we looked at. People told us the staff knew them and supported well, including their needs and preferences.

Care plans were clearly recorded. They detailed how people wished and needed to be cared for. They were regularly reviewed and updated as required with changes in care and support clearly signposted. We saw that relatives were involved in supporting staff to understand how people wished to be cared for. The care files had been reviewed regularly and people were involved in these reviews.

Systems were in place to gather feedback from people regarding the service and action was taken to improve the service, based on the feedback. The registered manager and senior staff also completed regular audits and addressed any areas identified as requiring improvement to improve the service provided to people.

Rating at last inspection: Good published (28 August 2016)

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection that was scheduled based on the previous rating. We inspected to check whether the service had sustained its Good rating.

Follow up:

We will follow up on this inspection through ongoing monitoring of the service, through conversations and checking relevant notifications.