Archived: Allied Healthcare Telford

Updated 12 February 2015

The inspection team consisted of an inspector and an Expert by Experience, who had experience of older people’s care services. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the provider, including the provider’s information return (PIR). This is a form submitted by provider giving data and information about the service. We also contacted care managers from the local authority that commissions the service to obtain their views.

We spoke with six people who used the service and two relatives in order to gain their views about the quality of the service provided. We spoke with three care staff, two care co-ordinators, the registered manager, the operations support manager, quality assurance manager and quality auditor. The operations support manager, quality assurance manager and quality auditor support the registered manager in ensuring the service has robust quality systems in place. We also looked at the care records of two people who used the service and the recruitment and training records of three members of staff.

Updated 12 February 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and to pilot a new inspection process being introduced by CQC which looks at the overall quality of the service.

Allied Healthcare Telford provides personal care and support for people in their own homes within Telford and Wrekin. There was a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law; as does the provider.

We inspected the service on 13 August 2014. We told the provider two days before our visit that we would be coming. At the time of our inspection the registered manager told us the service was providing personal care support to 148 people.

People using the service told us they felt safe and that staff treated them well. Policies and procedures were in place in relation to abuse and staff understood how to protect the people they supported from abuse.

We saw supervisors carried out regular unannounced checks on the care team where their working practices were observed. There was an out of hours on call system in operation, this ensured management support and advice was always available for staff.

We found staff would not be expected to support people with specific care needs or medical conditions unless they had received the appropriate training.

People told us they knew how to make a complaint if they needed to. They were confident that the service would listen to them and they were sure that their complaint would be fully investigated and action taken if necessary.

The provider carried out annual satisfaction surveys; we were informed that the most recent results were in the process of being analysed. The service had an action plan which was as a result of its own quality assurance audits. We saw action plans for areas that needed to be improved upon. The registered manager told us they had already met the majority of improvement areas identified in the action plan.