28 February 2017
During a routine inspection
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.