UK Care (Special Needs) Limited

Updated 30 November 2018

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 18 and 19 October 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the location provides a domiciliary care service within supported living schemes and we needed to be sure that the registered manager or provider would be available to support the inspection process.

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Before the inspection, we checked for any notifications made to us by the provider and the information we held on our database about the service and provider. Statutory notifications are pieces of information about important events which took place at the service, such as safeguarding incidents, which the provider is required to send to us by law. We also used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is 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.

Inspection site visit activity took place on both days. It included visits to two supported living schemes, to meet people living at those schemes, staff working with them, and to check records kept at the schemes. We also carried out observations of people's interactions with staff and how they were supported, as some people were unable to communicate with us due to the complexity of their conditions.

During the inspection we spoke with three people and four relatives. One relative sent us their feedback about the service via email. We also spoke with the registered manager, the service manager, two senior support workers and two support workers. We looked at four care plans and seven staff and training records, medicines records and other records relating to the management of the service such as audits, policies and procedures.

Updated 30 November 2018

This inspection took place on 18 and 19 October 2018 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours' notice that we would be coming because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available to support us with the inspection process.

UK Care (Special Needs) Limited provides the regulated activity of personal care to people living in a supporting living accommodation setting. The service aims to support people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions. At the time of this inspection there were seven people receiving personal care.

At our last inspection we rated the service ‘Good’, however, the service was rated requires improvement under well-led as concerns were noted around the way in which the service communicated with relatives about changes to the staff team. At this inspection we found that the service had addressed this concern and the evidence we looked at continued to support the rating of ‘Good’ and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

People and their relatives told us that they felt safe with the care and support that they and their relative received from support staff.

Risk assessments gave information on people’s individual risks associated with their health and care needs and guided support staff on how to minimise known risks to keep people safe.

People received their medicines safely and as prescribed.

Safe recruitment processes ensured that only those staff assessed as safe to work with vulnerable adults were employed.

People were supported by sufficient numbers of staff. Staffing allocations were based on people’s individually assessed support needs.

Accidents and incidents were recorded, reviewed and analysed to enable learning and improvements to prevent future re-occurrences.

Support staff told us and records confirmed that they were effectively supported through induction, regular training, supervision and annual appraisals.

People were appropriately supported with their nutrition and hydration needs to ensure they maintained a healthy and balanced diet. Where people had specialist dietary requirements these had been incorporated into their care plan and delivery.

People were routinely supported to access a variety of health and social care services or where there was an identified need or concern.

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

We observed people had established positive and caring relationships with support staff. Support staff knew the people they worked with very well.

Care plans were person centred and comprehensive and enabled support staff to provide care and support to people that was responsive to their needs.

Complaints were recorded and appropriately responded to with details of the actions taken to resolve the complaint.

Clear management oversight systems in place allowed the registered manager and provider to monitor the quality of care and support people received. Where concerns were noted action plans in place ensured these were addressed and future learning was implemented.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.