Novus Care Limited - Surrey

Novus Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses in the community and provides a service to adults. On the day of the inspection the service was supporting 41 people with a range of health and social care needs, such as people with a physical disability, sensory impairment or people living with dementia. Support was tailored according to people’s assessed needs within the context of people’s individual preferences and lifestyles to help people to live and maintain independent lives and remain in their homes. Not everyone using Novus Care Limited receives the regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service:

• Staff had received essential training and feedback from people indicated that they knew the best way to care for people in line with their needs and preferences. However, we saw that some staff had not received training in topics that the provider considered essential and refresher training for staff had not routinely gone ahead. We have identified this as an area of practice that requires improvement.

• People were happy with the care they received, felt relaxed with staff and told us they were treated with kindness. They said they felt safe, were well supported and there were sufficient staff to care for them. One person told us, “Their attitude is polite they always come with a smile and they give me confidence”.

• People’s independence was promoted and told us their needs were met. They told us that they had a regular team of care staff who arrived on time and knew them well. One person told us, “It depends on how you feel within yourself, but I feel like it’s a friend coming to my house to help me out”.

• People felt they were offered choice in the way their care was delivered and that they had no concerns around their dignity and privacy in their own homes being respected. One person told us, “They are all pleasant, nice and professional”.

• The provider had systems of quality assurance to measure and monitor the standard of the service and drive improvement. These systems also supported people to stay safe by assessing and mitigating risks, ensuring that people were cared for in a person-centred way and that the provider learned from any mistakes.

• People told us they thought the service was well managed and they received high quality care that met their needs and improved their wellbeing from dedicated and enthusiastic staff. One person told us, “They make a horrible situation so much easier, I’d be lost without them”.

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 10 October 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the intelligence we receive about this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Good.

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

This was the first inspection of the service since it registered with the Care Quality Commission on 30 July 2014.

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. A new branch manager had been appointed and they were about to commence the application process to become registered with CQC.

People using the service told us they were treated in a respectful and caring manner by regular staff members who knew them well and supported them safely and effectively. They said they would recommend Novus Care Limited to other people.

People were supported by staff who were trained and well supported in their job roles. Staff members had been safely recruited and had received an induction to the service. Staff we spoke with were confident that they provided a good service to people. They had access to supervision and were given regular opportunities to discuss their performance with the management team. The staff said they felt supported by the service.

Staff understood how to help protect people from the risk of abuse. The agency had procedures in place to report any safeguarding concerns to the local authority. People and staff were protected from potential risk of harm as the service had identified and assessed any risks to them and reviewed these on a regular basis. People had assessments which were individual to the person and their environment.

Medicines were administered in a safe way. Staff received training and a competency framework was in place to make sure they understood and followed safe procedures for administering medicines.

Staff had received training in the MCA (Mental Capacity Act) and understood the importance of gaining people’s consent before assisting them.

The service completed assessments of people’s needs and these were used to inform the care plan for each person. New care plans were being introduced that were more individualised reflecting the person and what was important to them. The service kept people’s needs under review and made changes as required.

People and their relatives felt able to raise any concerns or complaints. There was a procedure in place for people to follow if they wanted to raise any issues.

The service was well led. The agency monitored the quality of the service and made changes to improve the service provided when required. Staff and people who used the service found the management team approachable and responsive.