Archived: Pinetrees Annex

Below is a summary of what we found.

Is the service safe?

We found that in the first few weeks of this service becoming operational some people had experienced missed calls. This had meant that some people had not always received safe care because they had not had the support they needed. When we inspected, however, we found that people had received the timely care they needed because the necessary improvements to their service had been made. We saw, for example, that the scheduling of day-to-day visits to people's homes had improved and people received a phone call to check if staff had arrived on time. This meant that the risk of people not receiving the care they needed, when they needed it, had been minimised. One person said, 'They were a bit unreliable to start with but now things are fine. I would say the service is excellent.'

We were told that a new telephone system that required staff to 'log' in and out of their scheduled visit had been due to be operational a few days after we had inspected. This meant that once the new system was operational there was an additional safeguard in place to protect people. One person said, 'They ring me now to check the carer has turned up on time and they let me know if they are running late. Sometimes that is inevitable because of traffic but it is nice to know they are taking the trouble to check if I have had my visit and I am okay.'

Is the service effective?

When we inspected there were only seven people who received a service. We visited three people at home and spoke with one person by telephone. The other people preferred not to be contacted by us but had not raised any concerns about the way they had been treated by staff. All the people we spoke with were very complimentary about the friendly and willing attitude of the staff that supported them. They said the staff had provided them with the support they needed. One person said, 'They know what they need to help me with. I have no complaints at all about the way they do their job. I am happy with what they do for me.'

Is the service caring?

One person said, 'They are all very polite and keen to do a good job.' Another person commented, 'They are always kind and friendly. They always ask if I need anything else doing before they leave.'

Is the service responsive?

We saw from looking at care records, from talking with people who used the service that the staff had responded appropriately to people's changing needs. We saw, for example, that people's care plans had been updated so that staff were kept informed of the support people needed.

Is the service well led?

We saw that when there had been initial problems with the reliability of the service senior staff had acted promptly to put things right. The organisations Operational Director had personally visited people at home to apologise for the missed calls that had initially occurred. The three staff we spoke with all said that senior staff were always on-call to provide guidance and support. One person said, 'When things go wrong they find out why and then tackle the issue so that people are happy and feel safe.'