Auckland Care - Hampshire

Auckland Care Limited is a domiciliary care provider. At the time of this inspection people received personal care support from Auckland Care Limited in a variety of supported living services spread across Hampshire. The service supported people with a variety of care needs, including autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection there were 5 people being supported with personal care by Auckland Care Limited.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Auckland Care Limited was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support: The service was not maximising people’s choices, control or independence. People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support this practice. We could not be assured the service was working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We have made a recommendation about the management of assessments and best interest decisions.

Right Care: People were not supported to lead inclusive and empowered lives. People had care plans in place. However, these were not always written in a way that was person centred and easy to understand; we found a lack of detail to guide staff on how to support people safely and consistently. People were at increased risk of harm because staff did not always have the information, they needed to support people safely. Medicines were not managed safely. We have made a recommendation about the management of oral hygiene.

Right Culture: The service was not always well led. The quality assurance systems to assess and monitor the service were not always in place, and where they were, they were not effective. We found the provider did not have enough oversight of the service to ensure it was being managed safely and quality maintained. Quality assurance processes had not identified all of the concerns in the service. Records were not always complete, or person centred. This meant people did not always receive high quality care.

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 15 November 2017).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about management oversight. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and governance.

We have made recommendations about the management of oral hygiene and mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

The inspection was announced and was carried out on 24 August and 7 September 2017 by one inspector.

There was a registered manager in place at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the home. 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 home is run.

People told us staff supported them to stay safe. Staff understood how to identify, report and manage any concerns related to people’s safety and welfare. People were protected from individual risks in a way that supported them and promoted their independence.

Safe recruitment practices were followed and appropriate checks had been undertaken, which made sure only suitable staff were employed to provide care and support for people. There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s assessed needs.

Where required, people received support to manage their prescribed medicines from staff who had received appropriate training.

People were supported by staff who had received an induction and further training, professional development and supervision.

People received support when needed in order to maintain their health and have access to appropriate healthcare services.

The registered manager was aware of legislation designed to protect people’s rights and ensure decisions were the least restrictive and made in their best interests.

People were supported to eat and drink enough and develop and to maintain daily living skills that included budgeting, shopping, meal preparation and maintaining a healthy diet.

Staff developed caring and positive relationships with people and were sensitive to their individual choices and treated them with dignity and respect. People were encouraged and supported to maintain relationships that were important to them.

The service monitored people’s changing needs through regular reviews. People were involved in discussions about their care and support planning and had information about how to make a complaint should they wish to.

Staff told us the registered manager and senior management team were supportive and accessible. There were systems in place to monitor quality and safety of the service.