Age UK Wakefield District - Home Support Services

Age UK-Wakefield District Home Support Services is a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to older people and younger adults. At the time of our inspection there were 35 people using the service.

People’s experience of the service and what we found:

People were protected from the risk of abuse; people and relatives told us they felt safe. Risks posed to people were assessed. The service monitored accidents and incidents to enable them to learn lessons and mitigate future risks to people. People were supported by enough staff at the correct times. There had been no missed care calls and people told us staff were on time. Staff were recruited safely. People told us staff were kind and caring. Medicines were safely managed.

People’s care plans were individualised and the service promoted person centred care. This provided good outcomes, for example increasing people’s independence.

Staff felt supported in their roles. The registered manager completed staff supervisions and spot checks to ensure staff were competent. Team meetings provided staff with opportunities to raise concerns and make suggestions.

Governance systems and meetings ensured the provider had oversight of the service. The registered manager completed audits to monitor the quality and safety of the service. However, records audits were overdue and some records required signing. We have made a recommendation that the provider reviews their systems for auditing records.

People and relatives told us the service was well led. Feedback was sought from people and relatives and was used to improve the quality of care people received. Complaints and concerns were effectively managed.

Staff worked closely with external agencies to ensure people's health needs were met, this included district nurse teams, occupational therapists and social workers. The registered manager understood their roles under duty of candour and reported incidents to the relevant authorities where required.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (Published 23 March 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key question not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Age UK-Wakefield District Home Support Services on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Recommendations

We have made a recommendation the provider reviews their systems and processes for auditing records, to ensure records are reviewed, signed and up to date.

Follow Up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to older people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection there were two people using 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People and their relatives said they felt supported by knowledgeable and caring staff, and were safe. They felt confident in their abilities and were supported in the manner they chose. People’s independence was promoted as much as possible.

Risk management processes were robust and staff had access to out of hours support if required. People’s needs were met with consistent staff who often supported over and above what was initially agreed to ensure all needs were met.

We found some issues with medication practice and made a recommendation to the registered manager to ensure they followed current guidance.

The registered manager had a sound understanding of current guidance and ensured staff had received all necessary training and supervision.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Care planning involved all people using the service and their relatives. People’s needs were regularly reviewed and adjustments made if needed. The service had not received any complaints but there was a clear procedure in place to manage any concerns.

The registered manager had a strong vision for the service and had developed a quality assurance system which focused on best practice with regular reflections. They were keen to use ideas from staff and people using the service in order to develop the quality of care delivery.