About the service: Radis Community Care (Huntingdon) is a domiciliary care agency. The agency office is in Huntingdon. Care is provided to adults in their own houses and flats in the Huntingdon, St Neots, Ramsey, Yaxley, and the surrounding areas. There were 123 adults receiving personal care at the time of our inspection.
People’s experience of using this service:
Staff had not always identified risks to people who used the service or put in place guidance on how to reduce risks where these were identified. Staff had not always updated people’s risk assessments to reflect their changing needs. The registered manager had not always investigated incidents that occurred.
The registered manager had not always carried out robust checks of staff to make sure they were suitable for their roles.
Governance systems and provider oversight were not sufficiently robust to have identified the issues we found in relation to the management of staff recruitment, medicines, assessment and care planning.
People were satisfied with the way staff supported them to take their prescribed medicines and they said they received these at the right times. However, staff did not always record that they had administered medicines that had been bought over the counter, rather than prescribed.
There were enough staff to ensure people’s needs were met safely and at the right time.
People were protected from avoidable harm by a staff team trained and confident to recognise and report any concerns. Staff followed the provider’s procedures to prevent the spread of infection and reduce the risk of cross contamination.
Staff knew the people they cared for well and understood, and met, their needs. Staff were trained and well supported to meet people’s assessed needs. Staff supported people to have enough to eat and drink. Staff supported people to access external healthcare services to help maintain their health and well-being.
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. People were fully involved in making decisions about their care and support.
People and their relatives were involved in the setting up and review of their or their family member’s individual support and care plans. However, some people’s care plans lacked guidance for staff in how to provide people’s care and had not been updated when people’s needs changed.
Staff were kind, caring and friendly. Staff respected and promoted people’s privacy, dignity and independence.
Staff worked in partnership with other professionals to ensure that people received care that met their needs.
People’s suggestions and complaints were listened to, investigated, and acted upon to reduce the risk of recurrence. The registered manager sought feedback from people about the quality of the service provided.
We identified three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 relating to safe care and treatment, fit and proper persons employed, and good governance. Please see the ‘action we have told the provider to take’ section towards the end of the report.
Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 17 August 2016). At this inspection the rating went down to requires improvement.
Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up: We have asked the provider to send us an action plan telling us what steps they are to take to make the improvements needed. We will continue to monitor information and intelligence we receive about the service. We will return to re-inspect in line with our inspection timescales for services rated requires improvement.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk