15 September 2015
During a routine inspection
The inspection took place on 15 September and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service at an office location and at supported living services.
This was the first inspection of the service which was registered in April 2015.
Enable UK (Midlands) Limited is a private organisation. This branch of the organisation provides personal care and support to adults who have a learning disability living in the London Borough of Hillingdon. At the time of our inspection they provided support to eight men who lived in three different homes.
The provider had a registered office location which we visited. We also visited one location where four people lived as part of our inspection.
There was not a registered manager in post. The manager of the service had applied to be registered the Care Quality Commission. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
The recruitment procedures for staff did not always include making checks on their criminal record or obtaining references from previous employers.
Relatives of people using the service felt that the staff were not always deployed in a way to best meet their needs and sometimes the staff worked long shifts on consecutive days.
The staff did not have the support, training and supervision they needed to care for and support people.
The provider did not always respond and take appropriate action when people complained about the service. People did not always feel well informed or involved.
The relatives of people who used the service and staff did not feel the service was well managed or led. They told us they were not able to get the information and support they needed. They were concerned about changes in management and the lack of managerial support for the services.
The provider did not operate an effective system to monitor, assess and improve the quality of the service.
There were risk management and support plans for each person which identified where they might be at risk and what the staff needed to do to support them.
People were supported to have the right medicines and these were stored and recorded appropriately.
People’s capacity to make decisions had been assessed and where they lacked capacity, other relevant people made decisions in their best interest and these were recorded.
People’s nutritional needs were met and they had a choice and variety of meals. However, relatives were concerned that people did not always receive freshly prepared food and did not always have enough fruit and vegetables.
People were supported to meet their health care needs. The staff were kind, caring and polite. People’s privacy and dignity was respected. The staff and the people who they were caring for had positive relationships with each other.
Each person had a clear and up to date support plan which described their needs and the support they required from the staff. Relatives of people who used the service felt that some of their needs were not being fully met.
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.