Archived: North Tyneside Home Care Associates Limited

Updated 14 August 2015

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.

This inspection took place on 19, 21, 22 and 27 May 2015 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hour’s notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be present at the service offices. The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and one expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection, the provider completed 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.

We reviewed information we held about the service, including any notifications we had received from the provider about serious injuries, deaths or safeguarding concerns. Prior to the inspection we contacted the local authority contract team and safeguarding officers. We also contacted the local Healthwatch organisation by email to obtain their opinion of the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used their comments to support our planning of the inspection.

We contacted health and social care professionals by telephone before and following the inspection to seek their opinion of the service. These included community nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists.

We visited 16 people in their own homes and spoke with 22 by telephone. We also spoke with five relatives.

We spoke with a number of staff during the inspection, including the registered manager, managing director, regional manager, regional clinical lead, compliance and quality director, operations manager, team manager, two coordinators, one supervisor, the office administrator, the human resource officer and 13 care staff.

We looked at a range of care records which included the care records of the people we visited in their homes (16). We also checked the personnel files of 12 staff members. We looked at accident and incident records, training records, quality assurance checks, health and safety information, risk assessments, meeting minutes and other records in relation to the management of the service.

Updated 14 August 2015

The announced inspection took place on 19, 21, 22 and 27 May 2015. We last inspected the service in March 2014 when we found the service was meeting all the regulations that we inspected.

At the time of our inspection, North Tyneside Home Care Associates Limited provided home care and housing support for 260 adults living in their own homes within the North Tyneside area. These figures will fluctuate due to the nature of the service. The service is part of a larger employee owned domiciliary provider spread across mostly the North of England known as CASA (Care & Share Associated Limited) and the service is locally known as CASA.

The service had 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.

We considered people were not fully protected against the risks associated with medicines because associated care plans and risk assessments were not always in place and reviewed regularly. We also found people’s care records in need of further improvements.

The provider had dealt with previous safeguarding concerns appropriately. There were safeguarding policies and procedures in place. Staff knew what actions they would take if abuse was suspected.

Accidents and incidents were recorded and monitored by the registered manager and the provider to help them identify any trends. We saw that accidents had been recorded and dealt with appropriately.

The registered manager told us they tried to ensure people were visited by the same care staff but that was not always possible due to sickness or holidays. Staffing levels were maintained by timely and safe recruitment procedures.

Staff had received an induction and completed a programme of training. Staff said they felt supported by their line manager and the provider.

The registered manager was fully aware of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, particularly in relation to the court of protection There were policies and procedures in place and staff had been trained.

People were provided with meals and drinks they had chosen and preferred if that was part of their identified need.

People were treated with respect and dignity and staff were kind and considerate.

A complaints procedure was in place and people and their relatives knew how to access it and who they needed to talk to should this be required.

The service had a management team in place. Expertise was used in the service from the clinical lead for example when this was required.

We found one breach in relation to Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This related to record keeping and governance. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.