Archived: Enablement Service

Updated 9 March 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.

The inspection was carried out on 6 February 2017 and was announced. The inspection was undertaken by a single inspector, two CQC pharmacists and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection we reviewed relevant information that we had about the provider including the Provider Information Return pack, which the service sent to us to tell us how they manage the service under the five key lines of enquiries.

During the inspection we spoke with the service manager, registered manager, enablement manager and two assistant enablement managers. We looked at five care plans, which consisted of people receiving personal care in their own home and one care plan for a person who had been recently assessed to receive personal care. We reviewed five staff files and looked at documents linked to the day-to-day running of the agency such as medicine records and quality assurance documents.

After the inspection we spoke to six people, five relatives, one senior enablement staff member and five enablement staff.

Updated 9 March 2017

We carried out an inspection of Enablement Service on 6 February 2017. This was an announced inspection where we gave the provider notice because we needed to ensure the registered manager would be available to support us with the inspection.

Enablement service provides personal care to people in their own home. The service offered support to people that had left hospital or were recovering from a recent illness or injury. The service provides short-term, intensive support to help people with everyday tasks that includes personal care. At the time of our inspection, there were 73 people who received personal care from the service. This was the first inspection of the service.

The service had a registered manager in place. 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.

Risk assessments had been completed for most people. However, for some people risk assessments did not provide information on how to mitigate identified risks to reduce health complications. Risk assessments in relation to falls were not specific to people’s circumstances.

People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. People and relatives we spoke with told us they were happy with the support received from the service and they felt safe with staff. Staff knew how to identify abuse, the different types of abuse and how to report abuse.

Staff had been trained on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and knew the principles of the act. Staff told us that they asked for consent before doing anything and people we spoke to confirmed this.

Audits were carried out by members of the assistant management team. These audits included spot checks and reviewing care plans, speaking to the person and follow up actions were recorded. We noted that our concerns with risk assessments had not been identified during the audits carried out by the assistant management team. The registered manager and service manager also carried out their own audits to ensure processes were being followed and people were receiving safe care and support. The registered manager had identified risk assessment as an issue through their own quality assurance process and had scheduled training in this area.

Staff told us they were supported by the management team and had received regular supervision. Records confirmed this. Systems were in place to schedule future supervisions, which we saw had been scheduled regularly.

Team meetings were being held and recorded across all staff levels.

Staff had regular training in key area’s to ensure knowledge and skills were kept up to date. A training matrix was in place to monitor future training needs and completed training. The matrix identified staff that may have missed training and a plan was in place to schedule outstanding training for these staff.

There were sufficient numbers of staff available to meet people’s needs. People we spoke to confirmed this. The service was able to monitor staff punctuality and attendance.

People’s goals to achieve independence had been listed. Records provided general details on how to support people to achieve their goals, but lacked specific guidance for staff on how to support people in this respect. People told us that they were encouraged to be independent and enablement staff knew how to support them to regain independence. People told us that their privacy and dignity was respected by enablement staff.

We identified a breach of regulation relating to risk assessments. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.