Archived: Medacs Healthcare Stafford

Updated 4 April 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 13 February 2017. The inspection was announced and was undertaken by an inspector and an inspection manager. We gave the provider 48 hours' notice of the inspection as we needed to be sure that the relevant people would be available. Following the inspection visit we spoke with people who used the service. An expert by experience carried out telephone calls to people to gain people's views and experiences of their care delivery. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Our expert had experience of home care services.

We reviewed the information we held about the service, including statutory notifications that the provider had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also reviewed information sent to us by the provider through the submission of a Provider Information Return and we spoke with the local authority to find out their views of the care provider as commissioner of the care.

During our inspection we talked to seven people who used the service and four relatives of people who used the service. We spoke with 12 members of staff including the registered manager, the regional manager, the training manager, the care co-ordinator, two senior care worker and six care workers employed at the company. We looked at eight care records for people using the service as well as records related to the delivery of people's care. We reviewed staff files to ensure staff were recruited safely and reviewed how the quality of the service was being monitored. We also looked at call schedules, incidents, accidents and complaints.

Updated 4 April 2017

We completed an announced inspection at Medacs Healthcare Stafford on 13 February 2017.

We last inspected this service in June 2016, at which time we found that improvements were needed in relation to how the service was monitoring the quality of care being delivered.

At this inspection we found that the service was not being effectively managed and that the required improvements had not been made or effectively implemented. We also identified further areas that required improvements to ensure people received care that was safe, effective, responsive and well-led. We identified three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. One of these was an on-going breach in relation to how the service was being managed. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

The service is registered to provide personal to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 38 people were using the service. There were 22 members of staff working at the service.

The service had a registered manager. 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.

We found that staff felt unsupported, that they were unclear about the values and vision of the organisation and that they had little confidence in the registered manager. We found that people using the service were not always listened to and that complaints and concerns had not always been adequately addressed to people's satisfaction.

Risks to people’s health, safety and wellbeing were not being identified, managed and reviewed and medicines were not managed safely.

People's care needs were not regularly reviewed. People’s care plans were not accurate and up to date which meant staff didn’t always have the information they needed to provide safe and consistent care.

The registered manager did not understand the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and staff did not always understand what was meant by mental capacity, despite some people using the service having conditions which may have affected their mental capacity.

Staff training was not being monitored by the registered manager to ensure the quality of care being delivered.

Safeguarding incidents were recorded and the appropriate agencies were notified, however, the service had not always responded to protect vulnerable people from the possible risk of abuse.

People were treated with respect and staff were able to describe how they delivered care to meet people individual needs. However, care was not being planned to ensure people received individualised care that promoted their independence.

Effective systems were not in place to ensure concerns about the quality of care were investigated and managed to improve people’s care experiences.

There were insufficient staff working at the service at the time of inspection.

Staff had been safely recruited and notifications had been made when incidents had been identified as needing to be notified.