Archived: My Life Living Assistance (Christchurch)

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service primarily to older adults. At the time of our inspection there were 68 people receiving a service from the agency. The service had been registered for providing nursing care but was not providing this at the time of our inspection.

The service had a registered manager. 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. The registered manager was not present during our inspection but arrangements were in place for senior staff to provide any information needed.

The service had failed to comply with their condition of registration as they had moved address in January 2018 before their current location had been registered with the Care Quality Commission. The new address was registered with CQC on the 10 August 2018.

People and their families described their care as safe. Staff had been trained to recognise signs of abuse and understood their role in reporting any concerns both internally and to external agencies. Staff had also completed equality and diversity training and respected people’s individual lifestyle choices. Assessments had been completed that identified risks people lived with and staff understood the actions needed to minimise the risk of avoidable harm including preventable infections. Medicines were administered safely by trained staff who regularly had their competencies checked.

Staff had been recruited safely ensuring they were safe to work with vulnerable adults. Staffing levels met people’s needs with office staff also trained to provide care when needed. Effective processes were in place to manage unsafe practice. Incidents, accidents and safeguarding's were used to reflect on practice and lessons were learnt when things went wrong.

Assessments had been carried out prior to a person receiving care and support and this information had been used to create person centred care plans reflecting the persons care needs and choices. People had their eating and drinking needs understood and met as staff were knowledgeable about peoples likes, dislikes and routines. People were supported to access a range of health and social care services when needed, including district nurses and specialist mental health workers. People had an opportunity to be involved in end of life planning and had their cultural and religious diversity respected.

Staff had completed an induction and had ongoing training and support that enabled them to meet people’s needs and carry out their roles effectively. Opportunities for professional development included staff completing national diplomas in health and social care.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. A complaints process was in place and people felt if they raised concerns they would be listened to and actions taken.

People and their families spoke positively about the care team describing them as kind and caring and told us they felt involved in decisions about their care. People had their privacy, dignity and independence respected. Staff had a good knowledge of people, their past histories, hobbies and interests and had the skills to meet people’s individual communication needs.

The culture of the service was open and transparent which enabled people, their families and staff to be involved and share views about the service. Robust quality assurance processes were in place that effectively monitored service delivery and regulation compliance highlighting areas of improvement and achievement. Links with other organisations such as Skills for Care meant that the service was able to keep up to date with best practice guidance and new innovations.

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to older adults. At the time of our inspection there were 17 people receiving personal care from the agency.

The service had a registered manager. 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 were not being fully protected from abuse as systems and processes were not being operated effectively to ensure concerns about abuse were reported and investigated. Although any incidents reported had been fully investigated by the agency they had failed to share information with external agencies.

Statutory notifications had not been made to CQC. This meant that we had not received information to support our monitoring of the service. People and their families were unhappy at not regularly receiving a weekly programme detailing visit times and names of carers.

People’s risks had been assessed and care workers we spoke with understood the actions they needed to take to minimise these risks and to meet peoples care needs. However care plans did not always contain enough information to ensure risks or care needs were being consistently managed. At the time of our inspection the registered manager was in the process of writing more detailed care plans for people to ensure risks were consistently managed. Changes to peoples care needs were communicated to staff and people and their families felt involved in reviews of their care and support.

People and their families told us they felt the care was safe. People were supported by enough staff who had been recruited safely and understood their role in recognising and reporting any suspected abuse or poor practice. Staff had completed an induction and on-going training that enabled them to carry out their roles effectively and felt supported in their roles. Medicines had been administered safely to people including topical creams and pain relief. People had been supported to access healthcare when needed.

Staff supported people’s ability and choices about their day to day care and obtained consent in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (2005). People and their families knew how to make a complaint and felt they would be listened to and any actions needed would be taken.

People and their families described staff as caring, efficient and respectful. They found it helpful being supported by regular care workers who understood their likes and dislikes. People felt involved in decisions about their care and felt staff respected their dignity, right to privacy and independence

Staff spoke positively about the manager and felt empowered to share views and ideas about the service. They understood their roles, responsibilities and boundaries and described communication within the service as good.

Quality monitoring processes were in place and used effectively to improve outcomes for people. When actions had been identified they were shared with staff and progress regularly reviewed.

Working relationships had been developed with health and social care commissioners which ensured partnership working led to positive outcomes for people.

We found a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.