Archived: The Mayfield Trust Outreach Service

Updated 11 March 2017

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.

The inspection visit to the provider’s office was made on 30 January 2017. The inspection was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

At the time of inspection the service was providing personal care and support to 10 people.

During the visit to the provider’s office we looked at the care records for four people who used the service, one staff recruitment file, training records and other records relating to the day to day running of the service. We also spoke with a care co-ordinator, the training and development officer, health and safety officer and registered manager.

The inspector spoke with five relatives and following the visit to the provider’s offices they spoke with a further three care workers.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included looking at information we had received about the service and statutory notifications the registered manager had sent us.

We also asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The registered provider returned the PIR and we took this into account when we made judgements in this report.

Updated 11 March 2017

We inspected The Mayfield Trust Outreach Service on 30 January 2017. The visit was announced at short notice to make sure the registered manager would be available.

The last inspection took place on 28 & 29 June and 13 July 2016. At that time, we found the provider was not meeting the regulations in relation to good governance and staff training. We returned on this inspection to check improvements had been made.

The Mayfield Trust is an independent charity providing a range of care and support services to children, young people and adults with learning disabilities and other complex needs. The services provided include supporting people to join in community based activities and personal care. At the time of the inspection personal care was only being provided to ten people, which is the part of the service the Commission regulates.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

The service primarily supported children and adults to pursue a range of activities in the community, for example, swimming, bowling, wall climbing, play gyms, parks and visits to local places of interest. They had two mini buses and people using the service went out in groups supported by staff. The service operated at weekends and if people required support with their personal care in order to access this service this was provided by care workers.

There were enough staff to support people and meet their needs. Safe recruitment procedures were in place, which ensured only staff who were suitable to work in the service were employed.

People told us their relatives received a reliable service from a consistent team of care workers who were kind and caring. Staff were able to offer support with medicines, meals and healthcare appointments if these services were required. People had their own individualised care plan, which was reviewed on an annual basis or as and when their needs changed.

Safeguarding policies and procedures were in place and staff were aware of the need to report anything untoward in order to keep people safe.

There were policies and procedures in place in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivations of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

Staff training was not up to date but this had been identified through one of the service’s own audits and plans had been put in place to address this.

A complaints procedure was in place and we saw when concerns had been raised these had been responded to and resolved.

We found some quality audit systems had been introduced but these were still in their infancy and needed to be tested over time to see how effective they were.