Archived: The Innovate Building

Updated 7 September 2018

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 planned as a scheduled comprehensive inspection based on the rating the service was given at our previous scheduled comprehensive inspection and any current risks that we were aware of.

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. Inspection site visit activity started on the 31 July 2018 and ended on 07 August 2018. We visited the office location on 31 July and 7 August to see the manager and staff and to review care records and policies and procedures. We contacted people who used the service, relatives and staff on and between the above visit dates.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector. We reviewed other information we held about the service such as notifications, which tell us about incidents which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us about. The provider had completed a provider information return (PIR) prior to our inspection; this is a document that told us how the provider was maintaining and improving the service as well as providing other data. We also contacted other agencies such as commissioners and safeguarding teams. We used this information to help us plan our inspection.

We spoke with three people who used the service, three relatives, the manager, the deputy, the training manager and five support staff. We reviewed four people's care records; four medicine administration records (MARs), and three staff files. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service, for example audits and complaints records.

Updated 7 September 2018

We undertook our comprehensive inspection of the Innovate Building Domiciliary Care Agency (DCA) between 31 July 2018 and 07 August 2018. We visited the services’ office on 31 July 2018 and 07 August 2018. The visits to the Innovate building were announced at short notice, as we needed to be sure there were the appropriate people available for us to speak with.

We previously inspected the service between the 08 March 2017 and 09 March 2017 and the rating after this inspection was ‘requires improvement’. There were no breaches of regulations at this previous inspection. At this latest inspection we found the provider had improved the service sufficiently for us to rate the service as ‘good’.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Dependent on people’s needs carers may ‘live in’ to provide support throughout the day and night. The service may provide personal care to children from four years old to 18 years old and adults (younger or older) living with dementia, learning disabilities/autistic spectrum disorder, mental health, physical disability or sensory impairment. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people receiving personal care. Not everyone using the Innovate building receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

Some of the people receiving personal care live in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

The service does not currently have a registered manager as they had deregistered during the inspection. 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. There was an acting manager in place though, and they were looking to apply to us to become the registered manager.

People told us deployment of staff had improved with people allocated staff they knew who were part of a smaller team. This meant they received the same staff more consistently. People were protected from abuse as staff knew how to respond to allegations of abuse, and people were aware of how to raise concerns. People were happy with the way their medicines were managed. There were appropriate checks on new staff to ensure they were safe to work with people.

People are supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice. Staff were well trained and people expressed confidence in staff’s ability to meet their needs. People were supported to access community healthcare as needed. People had the support from staff need to ensure they had sufficient food and drinks of their choice.

People received support from staff who were kind and caring. Staff treated people with dignity and respect. People's independence was promoted. People could express their views and make choices regarding their daily living. Advocates were sourced for people when needed.

People’s individual care plans reflected their needs, wishes and preferences, and people, and/or their relatives were involved in their care planning. Staff knew people’s needs, likes, dislikes and personal preferences. People felt able to raise complaints and were confident these would be responded to by the provider.

The service had a manager at the time of inspection but they had not applied to be the registered manager. Whilst the previous registered manager had only recently deregistered they had not been managing the service for several months, and the new manager was yet to apply for registration. We saw the provider had made improvements to their systems for governance, which were improving the service people received. There was a need to ensure these improvements were sustained. People, relatives and staff knew the management team and felt they were approachable. The manager understood their legal responsibilities and used systems to keep them up to date with changes in the law. Staff told us they were now well supported by management.