6 June 2017
During a routine inspection
The service has a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People and their relatives informed us that they were satisfied with the care and services provided. They informed us that people had been treated with respect and they were safe when cared for by the service. There was a safeguarding adult’s policy. Care workers knew what action to take if they were aware that people who used the service were being abused.
Risk assessments had been carried out and these contained guidance for care workers for minimising potential risks to people. There was no record of accidents. The new manager stated that there had been no accidents involving people who used the service. Where an accident was preventable, guidance to care workers on prevention had been provided. The service had a policy and procedure for the administration of medicines. We were informed by the new manager that their care workers currently did not administer medicines to any of the people who used the service.
Care workers were caring in their approach and knowledgeable regarding the individual choices and preferences of people. Care workers prepared appropriate and up to date care plans which involved people and their representatives.
We were not confident that all care workers had been carefully recruited as some of their records did not contained all the required recruitment records. Two staff records contained only one reference and no explanations were given as to why additional references were not obtained. This means that people were at risk of being cared for by care workers who may not be suitable.
The service had an induction programme followed by on-going training in essential areas. We however, noted that the records of one care workers did not contain evidence of induction and the records of two care worker did not contain evidence of supervision sessions. This means that not all care workers had received the necessary support to assist them in their roles.
There were arrangements for encouraging people and their representatives to express their views and make suggestions regarding the care provided and the management of the service. Reviews of care had been carried out to ensure that people received appropriate care.
The service had a complaints procedure and people and their representatives knew who to contact if they had concerns. One complaint recorded had been promptly responded to.
The service did not have a comprehensive system of checks to ensure people received the care they needed. We were not provided with evidence of regular spot checks on care workers. In addition there was no evidence of regular monitoring of visits with follow up action for late visits to people. Audits of the service had only been started recently and we note that this had identified deficiencies that needed to be rectified.
We found three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what actions we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report