Archived: Allied Healthcare Milton Keynes

Updated 22 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 took place at the offices of the service on 28 February 2017. The inspection was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours notice to enable them to arrange for staff to be available to speak with us and to contact people who used the service to tell them about the inspection. The inspection team was made up of one inspector, who visited the offices of the service, 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. The inspector and the expert by experience carried out telephone interviews with people who used the service, relatives of people who used the service and care staff following the inspector’s visit to the offices.

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. We also sent 23 questionnaires to people who used the service, 23 to relatives of people who used the service and three to members of staff to inform us of any areas that we needed to specifically look at when carrying out the inspection. We received four responses from people who used the service. We also reviewed the information available to us, such as notifications and information provided by the public or staff. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

During this inspection we spoke with 11 people and nine relatives of people who used the service. We spoke with three care staff, a care quality manager and the registered manager. We looked at the care and visits records for four people and the recruitment records for two members of staff. We reviewed records of visits made to people and staffing rotas. We also reviewed information on how the quality of the service was monitored and managed, including the management of complaints and the emergency plans.

Updated 22 March 2017

The inspection took place over three days and was announced. The service provides personal care and support in people’s homes. At the time of the inspection there were 31 people who used the service.

There was a registered manager in post. 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 had been involved in deciding what support they needed and how this was to be delivered. A new format for care plans had recently been introduced. People and their relatives were involved in the regular review of their support needs and relatives were kept informed of any changes to a person’s health or well-being

People’s consent was gained before any care was provided and the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) were met. Staff were kind, caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People were encouraged to maintain their independence and were enabled to make choices whenever possible.

People were protected from the risk of harm by effective assessment and management plans to reduce the risks to them. These covered both personal risks to people and environmental risks. There were plans in place for emergencies that might occur and the service operated an ‘on call’ system that meant that people could contact them on a 24 hour basis. The service had up to date policies and procedures which included ones on safeguarding and whistleblowing.

Robust recruitment and selection processes were in place and the provider had taken steps to ensure that staff were suitable to work with people who used the service. Staff were trained and supported by way of supervisions, appraisals and regular checks of the way in which they delivered care in people’s homes. Staff were able to access specialist training when this was needed to provide appropriate care to people.

There was an up to date complaints policy in place and a copy of the complaints system was included in the folder kept at people’s home, which also included other information about the service.

There was an open culture and staff were supported by the registered manager. Regular quality audits were completed by the care quality staff and any areas for improvement were addressed with individual members of staff by the registered manager.