NCC First Support - Western

Updated 13 July 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector, an assistant 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

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes for a maximum of six weeks. The aim of the service is to provide people with support to help them regain independence and live as safely as possible at home following a period of illness or injury.

The registered manager had recently left the service and de-registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 3 June 2019. They had not been working at the service for several months. A new manager had been appointed and they were due to start in this role on 1 July 2019. They had therefore not yet registered with the CQC. The new manager was currently employed by the provider in another role within the service. They were present at this inspection.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity started on 10 June 2019 and ended on 12 June 2019 when we visited the office location.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection visit to the provider’s office we reviewed the information we held about the service and the provider. This included any notifications the provider had to send us by law and information we had received from members of the public about the quality of care being provided. We also reviewed the information the provider had sent to us in their Provider Information Return in March 2019. Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well and improvements they plan to make. We obtained feedback from professionals involved with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people and nine relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with ten members of staff including the newly appointed manager, two of the provider’s other service managers who had been providing support to Norfolk First Support Western, three reablement practitioners, three support workers and a care co-ordinator. We reviewed a range of records. This included eight people's care records and four medicine records. We also looked at three staff recruitment records and a variety of records regarding how the provider monitored the quality of care people received.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We asked them for further information in relation to identifying and reporting safeguarding concerns. This information was supplied as requested and we have used this within our report.

Updated 13 July 2019

About the service

NCC First Support Western is a reablement service providing personal care to people living in their own homes for a maximum of six weeks. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting approximately 80 people.

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

The monitoring of the quality of care in some areas had not been robust and the Care Quality Commission had not always been notified of incidents as is required by law. The provider was aware of these shortfalls and had taken steps to make the necessary improvements.

Risks to people’s safety had been assessed and managed well. Staff understood how to protect people from risks. They were kind and caring and treated people with dignity and respect.

People received care that met their individual goals to help them regain independence in their daily lives. The staff had received appropriate training and supervision to enable them to support people to achieve this.

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. People’s consent had been sought in line with the relevant legislation.

The service worked well with other health and social care professionals to help people gain independence and to support their health needs. Systems were in place to ensure people, where appropriate, were transferred to other services once they had completed their reablement with Norfolk First Support Western.

The provider had ensured there were enough staff employed to provide people with the support they required. Staff new to the service had been subject to several checks to make sure they were of good character and safe to work with people.

There was an open and person-centred culture where people and staff were treated as individuals. Staff were happy working for the service and felt valued, supported and listened to.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published November 2016).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

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