Archived: Mears Care Limited

Updated 2 June 2016

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 23 March 2016 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service; we needed to be sure that someone would be in.

The inspection team consisted of two adult social care inspectors who visited the provider’s premises and an expert by experience who spoke by telephone to people who used the service and their relatives. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

At the time of our inspection there were 32 people using the service. We spoke on the telephone with seven people who used the service. We spoke with five members of staff, a care coordinator, the recruitment coordinator and the registered manager. We spent time looking at documents and records that related to people’s care and the management of the service. We looked at four people’s care and support plans.

Before our inspection, we reviewed all the information we held about this service, including all notifications received. We contacted the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch stated they had no comments or concerns about this service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We also contacted the local authority who told us they received weekly updates from the provider.

Before the inspection the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

Updated 2 June 2016

This was an announced inspection carried out on 23 March 2016. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be in. This was the first inspection we have carried out at this location.

Mears Care Limited provides care and support to people in their own homes.

At the time of this inspection 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We looked at the management of medicines and found some gaps in the recording. The protocol for administering one person’s pain patch was not clearly documented which meant we could not be sure they always received this medicine.

Staff were aware of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and how this affected their role. Staff told us they supported people to make decisions they were able to make about their care and support. The registered manager told us they would complete a mental capacity assessment for people who needed this.

We found there were some gaps in the staff training programme, but also saw weekly training sessions were being delivered to account for this. Staff supervisions had started and we saw detailed recording of these sessions.

Staff were able to demonstrate their knowledge of how to recognise abuse and who they would report concerns to if they felt a person was being harmed. Risks to people had been appropriately assessed which meant people were protected from danger. People told us they felt safe receiving care and support from staff.

People gave us mixed feedback about the call times they received. Staff told us the rotas they were given did not allow for travel time and the distances they needed to cover. The registered manager was in the process of reviewing this.

Prior to our inspection the registered manager had started a programme of staff training and supervisions. People and staff told us the registered manager was friendly and approachable. People and staff reflected that the service had gone through a chaotic period, but also said they were seeing improvements.

Care plans we looked at contained sufficient information for staff to be able to provide effective care and support for people. We found a set of reviews were in the process of being completed which were used to update care and support plans.

We saw a mix of ongoing checks taking place in the service as well as a number of quality management systems which had been introduced shortly before our inspection. The registered manager made us aware of other changes they were planning to make to improve service quality.

People liked the staff who were providing their care and support. Staff identified how they protected peoples’ privacy and dignity and people told us this happened in practice. People knew how to complain if they were dissatisfied. Complaints had been poorly recorded before the current registered manager came in to post, but we saw this had significantly improved.

We found a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.