Background to this inspection
Updated
3 July 2019
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.
Inspection team:
Our inspection was conducted by one inspector and an 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.
Service and service type:
Start Service – Newark and Bassetlaw Locality is a domiciliary care service, registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes in the community.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This means they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit. This is because senior staff are often out of the office and we needed to be sure that they would be in the office to participate in the inspection. Our inspector visited the office on 11 and 17 June 2019 to interview staff and to review care records and policies and procedures. On 14 June our expert by experience telephoned people who used the service to seek their feedback.
What we did:
In planning our inspection, we reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included any notifications (events which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us about). We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
During our inspection we spoke with nine current or very recent users of the service to ask about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with the registered manager, two reablement managers, one reablement support worker; one peripatetic support worker and one of the provider’s group managers.
We reviewed a range of written records including four individual support plans, two staff recruitment files and information relating to the administration of medicines and the auditing and monitoring of service provision.
Updated
3 July 2019
About the service:
Start Service - Newark and Bassetlaw Locality is a domiciliary care service. It is registered to provide personal care to older people living in their own homes. The service provides short term ‘reablement’ support to help people regain skills for independent living, often following injury or illness. Typically, people use the service for about three weeks. At the time of our inspection 47 people were receiving a personal care service.
People’s experience of using this service:
Staff understood people’s individual care needs and reablement goals and used this knowledge to provide them with flexible, responsive support which enhanced the quality of their lives. People were involved in the development of their individual support plan.
Staff worked together in a mutually supportive way and communicated effectively, internally and externally. Training and supervision systems were in place to provide staff with the knowledge and skills they required to meet people’s needs effectively. There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs.
Staff were kind and attentive in their approach and were committed to supporting people to regain their independence. Staff worked in a non-discriminatory way and promoted people’s dignity and privacy. Staff worked alongside local health and social care services to ensure people had access to any specialist support they required. Systems were in place to ensure effective infection prevention and control and people's medicines were managed safely. Staff were aware of people’s rights under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and supported people to have maximum choice and control of their lives, in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People’s individual risk assessments were reviewed and updated to take account of changes in their needs, although we have made a recommendation about the format of the provider’s risk assessment forms. Staff knew how to recognise and report any concerns to keep people safe from harm. Staff recruitment was safe.
The registered manager had a supportive, democratic leadership style and had the respect and loyalty of her team. A range of audits was in place to monitor the quality and safety of service provision. There was organisational learning from significant incidents and formal complaints were rare. The provider had addressed the areas for improvement identified at our last inspection and was committed to the continuous improvement of the service in the future.
Rating at last inspection:
Good (Published July 2016)
Why we inspected:
This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. At this inspection we were pleased to find the quality of the service had been sustained in some areas and improved in others. The overall rating of the service remains Good.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.