6 June 2017
During a routine inspection
The service had a manager who was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.
Religious Services South provides personal care for the sisters of Sion who live in a convent in Worthing. For the purpose of this report we will refer to the sisters receiving care and support as people. At the time of the inspection five people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care. The people living at the convent had given their permission for the community lead sisters living at the convent to act as their advocate and represent their best interest when required.
The community lead sisters told us they felt the service was safe and the individual risks to people receiving care and support were assessed and managed. There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs. Staff had undergone employment checks prior to working in the service. People received their medicines from staff who were trained and had their competencies checked.
Staff were aware of people’s rights, choices and their religious needs and provided care and support in a personalised way. Staff received appropriate training and had regular supervisions and an annual appraisal, which enabled them to develop and understand their role and also meet people’s needs. The provider had effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service they provided.
People were supported to make decisions for themselves and encouraged to be as independent as possible. People and their representative were involved in planning the support people required. Staff understood how important it was for people to continue to live their life as they chose, following their religious faith. Staff supported people to engage in activities they liked.
People were supported to eat and drink and to access healthcare services when required. They told us staff were kind and caring and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff were quick to act on people`s changing needs and were responsive to people who required support.
There were effective systems used for auditing and monitoring of the service provision. Issues were promptly identified by the service manager and the registered manager and actions were put in place to improve the service.