Darlington Extra Care Services

Darlington Extra Care Services is an extra care agency providing care and support to older people in their own flats across 4 different sites. Some people who receive support may be living with dementia or have physical disabilities. The service supported 138 people at the time of the inspection. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Overall people shared positive feedback with us about their experience of Darlington Extra Care Services. They felt the staff enabled them to keep safe. Healthcare professionals also shared feedback regarding partnership working and positive working relationships.

Accidents and incidents were managed and recorded effectively. Recruitment was carried out effectively with the right safety checks and records in place.

Staff training was up to date and staff also received regular supervision and appraisals to ensure their development and practice was meeting people’s needs.

Risk assessments and relevant care plans were improved to ensure all the details needed to manage risk and support people safely was current. Care plans were person-centred and ensured people’s preferences were clear to guide staff on how to meet people’s individual needs.

Audits carried out by the registered manager and provider were addressing concerns to manage risk and improve the quality of care provided.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 19 February 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and due to the length of time since the previous inspection. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Darlington Extra Care Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

This service provides care 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 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 service.

Darlington Extra Care Services provides care to people living in their own flats within four extra care sites across Darlington. The service also provided a rapid response service to offer support to people for a 48 hour period on return from hospital or to prevent admission into hospital. On the day of our inspection there were 113 people using the service.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

We last inspected the service in January 2016 and rated the service as ‘Good.’ At this inspection we found the service remained ‘Good’ and met all the fundamental standards we inspected against.

People told us they felt safe with the staff from Darlington Extra Care Services. We saw that concerns were listened to and acted on straight away by the management team.

The registered manager and team leaders understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and staff had received training in the protection of vulnerable adults.

The provider had an effective recruitment and selection procedure in place. Any staff absences were covered by the provider’s own permanent staff or bank employees. People who used the service and their family members said staff usually arrived on time and stayed for the agreed length of time.

Accidents and incidents had been appropriately recorded and risk assessments were in place for people who used the service and staff. The service demonstrated it learnt from accidents, incidents and safeguarding issues and shared this learning with the staff team to drive improvements.

There was a safe system in place for the management of medicines and medicines administration records were completed accurately.

Staff were suitably trained and training was arranged for any due refresher training. Staff received regular supervisions and appraisals.

The provider was working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA).

People were protected from the risk of poor nutrition and staff were aware of people’s nutritional needs. We saw that the management team and staff were committed to supporting people to remain in their own homes with support and worked with district nurses, G.P’s, occupational therapy, physiotherapists and other specialist services as and when needed.

People who used the service and family members we spoke with were complimentary about the standard of care provided by the staff at Darlington Extra Care Services. People said their privacy and dignity were respected and they enjoyed positive relationships with the care staff.

Care records showed that people’s needs were assessed before they started using the service and care plans were written in a person centred way.

People who used the service and family members were aware of how to make a complaint.

Staff told us they were supported by the registered manager and team leaders and were comfortable raising any concerns. People who used the service, family members and staff were regularly consulted about the quality of the service. People and family members told us the management and office staff were approachable.

The service had recently won an award in the Great British Care Awards for best regional care team and one of the team leaders had been awarded a home care front line leader award in 2017.