Archived: Carewatch (Kirklees)

Carewatch (Kirklees) is registered to provide personal care. Care and support was provided to approximately 120 people who lived in their own homes within the Huddersfield area.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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 told us they felt safe. Staff received safeguarding training and were aware of their responsibilities in keeping people safe from the risk of harm or abuse. Care plans contained generic and person specific risk assessments which recorded the steps staff should take to reduce the risk of harm to people and to themselves.

There were systems in place to reduce the risk of employing staff who may not be suited to caring for vulnerable people. People who used the service and staff told us calls were not missed and people usually received care and support from regular staff.

All staff received regular training in medicine awareness and we saw there had been recent improvements made to the observational assessment of staff’s competency to administer people’s medicines. There had also been changes to the medicine administration record to ensure relevant details for each prescribed medicine were recorded.

New staff received induction training and shadowed a more experienced member of staff when they commenced employment. Staff received regular refresher training and there was a program in place to ensure staff received ongoing supervision including a field based assessment of their skills.

Staff had received training in regards to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Changes had recently been made to the organisations care planning documentation regarding capacity assessments and appointed lasting power of attorneys’. Care plans contained a customer consent form to enable people to consent to the package of care they received from Carewatch (Kirklees).

Everyone we spoke with told us staff were caring and kind. People told us staff treated them with respect and took steps to maintain their privacy. Staff were able to tell us about the actions they took to maintain people’s dignity and ensure peoples private information was kept confidential.

People and staff told us care plans were in place and were reflective of people’s needs. We found care plans were person centred and recorded a good level of detail about the person’s needs and preferences. A record was maintained of the daily care and support staff provided to people and there was a system in place to enable office staff to know when care records needed to be reviewed and updated.

No-one we spoke with raised any concerns or complaints about the service, people told us if they had any issues, they would telephone the office to discuss the matter with a member of the office team. Feedback from staff and people who used the service was positive.

There was a system in place to assess and monitor the service provided to people. This included staff meetings, audits of records and feedback from people who used the service. The organisations head office provided Carewatch (Kirklees) with a monthly overview in regard to their performance in a number of key areas, including staff training and review of peoples care records.

When we inspected the service in June 2013 we asked the provider to make some improvements. We went back on this visit to see what improvements had been made.

Since our last visit a new manager, two new field care supervisors, care co-ordinator and administrator had started working for the organisation. They told us they were working well as a team and were managing to implement changes to improve the service.

We spoke with seven people who used the service, five relatives and six members of staff. These were some of the things they told us:

'I am quite happy and feel safe with the staff I know.'

'The new staff in the office seem to be turning things around.'

'I was involved in developing my relatives care plan and it reflects their needs. The carers are doing a sterling job.'

'I have regular staff coming now.'

'In the main things seem to be ok and the service seems to be picking up.'

'Some staff are better than others, I have phoned the office and they have been out to see me. They said they will change the carers but this hasn't happened yet.'

'The office staff are really good if we phone in with a problem they get it sorted straight away.'

We found the improvements in the scheduling of calls meant people were getting a more reliable and consistent service. People's changing needs were being identified and new care plans put in place so staff knew what care and support they needed to provide.

There were systems in place to make sure that people were kept safe and procedures for reporting any suspected abuse.

There was a complaints procedure in place and people told us they would feel able to raise any concerns.

We saw complaints that had been made had been responded to and fully investigated.

We spoke with 23 people who used the service, two relatives and nine members of staff.

People's views of the service were mixed. Some people told us they got a reliable service and were happy with their care and support, whilst others told us calls had been missed and carers were often arriving late. We found that there were no systems in place to check that calls to people had been made.

People told us that the quality of staff was variable some were praised very highly whilst others were felt to need more training.

People told us that they were raising concerns but these were not being dealt with. We found that staff were not recording complaints and could not provide evidence that complaints had been dealt with to people's satisfaction.