9 May 2018
During a routine inspection
Sevacare – Leicester is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates the care provided, and this was looked at during this inspection. The last inspection rated the service as requires improvement. We received an action plan to deal with the issues raised in this inspection. Improvements in the service have been made and it is now rated as good.
This was a comprehensive inspection. The inspection took place on 9 and 10 May 2018. The inspection was announced because we wanted to make sure that the registered manager was available to conduct the inspection. The registered manager told us that 70 people were receiving a personal care service from the agency.
A registered manager was in post. This is a condition of the registration of the service. 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.
Risk assessments and staff practice were in place to protect people from risks to their health and welfare.
Staff recruitment checks were carried out to protect people from receiving personal care from unsuitable staff.
People told us they thought the service ensured safe personal care was provided by staff. Staff had been trained in safeguarding (protecting people from abuse) and understood their responsibilities in this area but had not been comprehensively aware of how to report to other relevant agencies if necessary.
Policies set out that when a safeguarding incident occurred management needed to take action, though it was unclear that all abuse, or allegations of abuse, would be referred to the relevant safeguarding agency. The registered manager was aware these incidents, if they occurred, needed to be reported to CQC, as legally required.
People told us that staff supported them with their medicines, and records had evidenced this had happened.
Staff had largely received training to ensure they had skills and knowledge to meet people's needs, though training on other relevant issues had not yet been provided.
Staff understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) to allow, as much as possible, people to have effective choices about how they lived their lives. Staff were aware to ask people’s consent when they provided personal care. Capacity assessments were in place.
People told us that staff were friendly, kind, positive and caring. People or their representatives had been involved in making decisions about how and what personal care was needed to meet their needs.
Care plans included important information on people’s needs, which helped to ensure that their needs were met.
Most calls to people were timely and this issue had improved, though some calls were not on time and caused concern to some people.
People and relatives were confident that any concerns they had would be properly followed up. Most people and relatives were satisfied with how the service was run to provide them with personal care that met their needs.
Staff members said they had been fully supported in their work by the management of the service.
Management had carried out audits in order to check that the service was meeting people's needs and to ensure people were provided with a quality service.