Archived: Allied Healthcare Stafford

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 and younger disabled adults. At the time of the inspection there were 51 people receiving a service.

Not everyone using Allied Healthcare Stafford receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

There was a registered manager at the service who was also a registered manager at another location under the same provider. 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.

We found that there were not effective systems in place to monitor and manage the service. This meant there was a risk that unsafe and ineffective care was not always identified and acted on. People's records did not always contain accurate and up to date information and improvements were needed to ensure there were effective communication systems in place.

People and staff told us there were not sufficient staff available to provide support in a consistent, unrushed way that met people’s preferences. Improvements were needed to ensure unfamiliar staff were aware of people’s risks to enable staff to lower the risk of harm.

The provider was not always following the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This meant that people were at risk of receiving care that was not in their best interests. We found that staff had received training. However, improvements were needed to ensure staff were trained to meet people’s specific needs. Improvements were needed to ensure staff were aware of changes in people’s needs and people’s preferences were not always met as recorded in their plans of care.

The provider had systems in place to gain information about people’s cultural and diverse needs to enable a holistic approach to people's care. The provider had safe recruitment procedures in place which ensured people were supported by staff of a suitable character.

People were supported to eat and drink sufficient amounts and nutritional risks were assessed and monitored. People’s health was monitored and health professionals input was sought where needed to ensure their wellbeing was maintained. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to protect people from the risk of harm and infection control measures were in place to protect people from the potential risk of cross infection.

People’s choices were promoted and respected by staff in a way that promoted people’s individual communication needs. People’s dignity was maintained and their right to privacy was upheld. People and relatives knew how to complain and the provider had a complaints procedure in place.

Staff felt able to approach the registered manager and felt supported in their role. Staff performance was monitored and discussed to ensure people received their planned care. The registered manager was aware of their responsibilities of their registration with us.

We found there were two breaches in Regulations 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.