28 June 2018
During a routine inspection
The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector. This service is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults. At the time of this inspection the service was providing the regulated activity of personal care to 34 people. These services were managed from an office in Kingswood, Bristol.
There was a registered manager in post. 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was based in another branch, however there was a care manager in the Bristol branch who ran the office on a day to day basis. The area manager for the area, also had a base in the office and provided support to the care manager as needed.
At the inspection of April 2017, we rated the service overall as Requires Improvement. At that inspection, we found a breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This was because medicines were not managed safely. We also recommended that audits of the service needed to improve as they were not effective.
Following the inspection, we told the provider to send us an action plan detailing how they would ensure they met the requirement of the regulation. At this inspection, we saw the provider had taken action as identified in their action plan. In addition, they had sustained previous good practice. As a result of this inspection, the service has an overall rating of Good.
Why the service is rated Good
The feedback we received from people and staff was positive throughout.
The safety of people who used the service was taken seriously and the care manager and staff were aware of their responsibility to protect people’s health and wellbeing. There were systems in place to ensure that risks to people’s safety and wellbeing were identified and addressed.
The staff team were motivated and proud of the service. All staff were fully supported by the care manager and the care co-ordinator. A programme of training and supervision enabled them to provide a good quality service to people. The care manager and staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and, worked to ensure people's rights were respected.
The care manager ensured staff understood people’s care needs and had the skills and knowledge to meet them. People received consistent support from staff who knew them well. People had positive, caring relationships with staff and were confident in the service. People who used the service felt they were treated with kindness and said their privacy and dignity was always respected.
People received a service that was based on their personal needs and wishes. Changes in people’s needs were quickly identified and their care was amended to meet their changing needs. The service was flexible and responded positively to people’s requests. People who used the service felt able to make requests and express their opinions and views, however a recent customer satisfaction survey identified that consistency in communication from the office needed to improve.
People benefitted from a service that was well led. The vision, values and culture of the service were clearly communicated to and understood by staff. The care manager was committed to continuous improvement. The service demonstrated a good understanding of the importance of effective quality assurance systems. There were processes in place to monitor quality and understand the experiences of people who used the service.