Archived: Barnardo's Brighton & Hove Link Plus Home Support Service

Updated 19 April 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

A comprehensive inspection took place on 20 March 2019 and was announced.

Inspection team:

One inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type:

Barnardo's Brighton & Hove Link Plus Home Support Service provides personal care for children and young people living with complex needs such as living with a learning disability and/or autism and/or physical disabilities.

The service aims to provide good quality care and inclusive activities for children and young people and support the families of disabled young people by enabling parents to take a regular break from their caring responsibilities.

The number of hours support that the provider had been commissioned to supply for each child or young person on a yearly basis. Parents and carers could use these hours as they wished and the times and frequency of the visits were arranged on an individual basis with their home support worker. Most parents and carers used their allocated hours for one or two sessions per week. The duration of the sessions varied but typically lasted for two to three hours. Some parents or carers chose to use some of their hours for longer sessions during the school holidays to facilitate outings.

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:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and we needed to be sure that they would be in. We visited the office location on 20 March 2019 to see records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

Before the inspection: We reviewed information available to us about this service. We checked the information that we held about the service and the service provider. This included previous inspection reports and statutory notifications sent to us by the provider about incidents and events that had occurred at the service. A notification is information about important events, which the service is required to send to us by law. We used all this information to decide which areas to focus on during our inspection.

The registered provider had completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). 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.

We received feedback from three professionals; a specialist children’s nurse, a local authority commissioner and a social worker. They gave us permission to quote them in this report.

During the inspection we looked at:

• Notifications we received from the service

• Three children and young people’s care records, risk assessments and medication records

• Records of complaints and audits

• Records of feedback collected from parents and carers

• Other documents relating to the management of the service.

During the inspection we spoke to the coordinator who carries out the day to day running of the service.

After the inspection:

• We received feedback on the service from two parents by email, they gave us permission to quote them in this report.

• We spoke to two home support workers and the registered manager by telephone.

Updated 19 April 2019

About the service: Barnardo's Brighton & Hove Link Plus Home Support Service is registered to provide personal care for children and young people with disabilities. At the time of the inspection, home support workers were providing a sitting service to provide parents of four children or young people a break from their caring responsibilities.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ Families and children and young people receiving the service continued to be supported by a tailored care package that met their specific needs and wishes.

¿ The needs of children and young people who received a service and any risks continued to be comprehensively assessed. Care plans were centered on the child or young person. Care plans had been compiled in collaboration with them and their parent or carer and took into consideration the child or young person's preferences likes and dislikes and the wishes of the family.

¿ A commissioner told us, “I have heard first-hand how vital the Home Care Support Service is and how well valued and trusted the carers are. We have received many testimonies reinforcing what impact the carers & the service has had for the family.”

¿ The family, including the child or young person, chose the home support worker who they were matched with and received consistent support from. A parent said to us, “All the team at Barnardo’s are kind, caring and approachable - understanding fully the needs of the whole family - they have supported us for many years now and have seen our child grow and thrive with their support.”

¿ Children and young people were provided with meaningful and individualised activities and outings which they enjoyed such as horse riding, swimming and going to social groups.

¿ Children and young people continued to be supported by staff who had the skills and knowledge to meet their assessed needs, preferences and choices. In addition to mandatory training, home support workers received training tailored to the specific needs of the child or young person they were matched with.

¿ Home support workers knew the children and young people they supported well and treated them and their family members or carers with compassion and respect. A parent told us, “I’ve been using the service for 5 years, it has been the most constant support that I have received over this time, and the support that feels the most reliable and trustworthy.” A feedback form from a parent said, “Our Home Support Worker is such a positive addition to life and to my life. She is extremely responsible and thoughtful, she’s an observant person and I trust her to meet very complex needs. Another feedback form from a parent said, “I feel such a relief knowing is coming for a few hours – it means I can rest if I’ve been up all night, can got to the supermarket or catch up on stuff that has been worrying me.”

¿ Parents told us that the communication between them the home support workers and staff in the office continued to be effective.

¿ Children and young people were protected from harm and kept safe. Home support workers were trained to recognise the signs of any potential abuse and knew what action to take if they had any concerns about people’s safety or welfare.

¿ The service continued to employ sufficient numbers of staff to make sure children and young people's needs were met and for the service to be managed on a day to day basis.

¿ Quality assurance arrangements were in place to seek feedback from staff, people and parents or carers views about the service to make continuous improvements to the service.

This service met the characteristics of Good. More information is in the ‘Detailed Findings’ below.

Rating at last inspection: Good. The last inspection report was published on 15 July 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection that was scheduled to take place in line with Care Quality Commission (CQC) scheduling guidelines for adult social care services.

Follow up: We will review the service in line with our methodology for 'Good' services.

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