28 March 2018
During a routine inspection
Daily Options is part of the Lady Verdin Trust and is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own home, with their family or in other residential accommodation such as a care home. The office is located in the centre of Crewe. Plans were on-going plans for the service to merge with another provider, Choice Support.
Not everyone using Daily Options received 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. Of the 62 people receiving support from Daily options at the time of the inspection, only seven were receiving 'personal care'. Because of this we focussed our inspection on people who received personal care.
At the last inspection we rated the service as good and, at this inspection we found the service remained Good. This report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.
The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.
The service maintained effective systems to safeguard people from abuse and individual risk was fully assessed and reviewed. People were supported by enough staff to meet their needs and in a caring and compassionate way. People’s dignity, privacy, human rights and right to be as independent as they could be were maintained. When required, people were assisted with their medicines safely.
We saw evidence that the service learned from accidents and/or incidents and that steps were taken to prevent them happening again.
Staff had the training and skills needed to meet people’s needs and were supported by a management team in order to complete their role effectively.
People had care and support plans that were personal to them and reflected their individual needs and preferences. Staff knew people’s support needs well and assisted them in the manner they preferred. The provider had systems in place to enable people and their relatives or representatives to give their views. These included a system for recording and responding to complaints, meetings, regular contact, review and a service questionnaire.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that as far as possible people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible.
We saw that the service was working within the principles of the MCA and that information within care records, observations and staff knowledge supported this. The registered manager had identified that documentation to record assessment of a person’s mental capacity, recording of best interest decision making and consent needed to be improved and was working with the provider to source new documentation.
Staff spoke positively about the provider and management of the service including the approachability of senior staff.
Daily Options worked effectively with other agencies including other care providers involved in people’s care, social workers and supported people to attend appointments to health care services as and when needed.
Quality assurance systems were in place. A variety of audits were carried out and used to drive improvement.
Further information can be found in the detailed findings included in the full report of this inspection.