Personal Support Service

Updated 20 November 2020

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

One inspector carried out this inspection.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in specialist 'extra care' housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is rented and is the occupant's own home. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people's personal care and support service.

The service is also a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a night care and support service to older adults. Not everyone using Personal Support Service receives 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.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that 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

Inspection activity started on 27 October 2020 and ended on 06 November 2020. We visited the office location on 29 October 2020.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with nine people who used the service and six relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 11 members of staff including the nominated individual, registered manager, five support workers and four team leaders. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We reviewed a range of records. This included samples of five people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance documents were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We wrote to three health professionals who regularly visit the service.

Updated 20 November 2020

About the service

Personal Support Service is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people

living in four separate independent living communities owned by York City Council. The service also provides personal care at night to people living within the city of York. The service was supporting 91 people at the time of inspection.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People were happy with the service they received and were supported to feel safe. Risk assessments identified potential risks to people and how to reduce these. Staff understood their role and what was expected of them to keep people safe. Improvements had been made to improve the consistency of staff for people and the registered manager was implementing new systems to further improve this.

People received appropriate support with their medicines. Staff completed infection control training and competency assessments to ensure they had the knowledge and skills to support people safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Safe recruitment procedures were in place.

Within the context of the COVID-19 infection risk, 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; the policies and systems in the service supported best practice.

Systems were in place such as audits and surveys to monitor the quality of the service. Lessons were learnt from complaints, safeguardings and incidents were identified and communicated to staff to prevent reoccurrence in the future. Staff received support in the form of regular meetings to support people to receive safe, effective care.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 12 April 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted in part due to our internal monitoring intelligence. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for personal support service on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.