Archived: Fairway Homecare Limited

Updated 4 June 2016

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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 19 April 2016 and was an announced inspection. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service; we needed to be sure that someone would be in. The inspection team comprised of one inspector.

As part of the inspection we looked at previous inspection reports and checked the information that we hold about the service. This included notifications from the provider that they are required to send us by law, safeguarding alerts and information from local authorities.

During our inspection we spoke to two people who used the service and one relative. We also spoke with six members of staff, including the registered manager, the co-ordinator, a member of the Human Resources Team, a trainer from the Learning and Development Department and two care staff.

We looked at three staff files to check the provider’s recruitment processes, the care records of four people, the medicine management records and at records maintained by the provider about the quality of the service.

Updated 4 June 2016

This inspection took place on 19 April 2016 and was an announced inspection. At the last inspection on 29 May 2014 the provider was meeting the regulations we looked at.

Fairway Home Care is a domiciliary care service which is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection we were told that Fairway Home Care was providing care and support to 21 people. However, some of these people were only receiving support with domestic tasks such as shopping and household cleaning of which we do not regulate. Therefore, we found that 12 people were receiving support with the regulated activity; personal care.

Fairway Home Care is required to have a register manager in post. 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. A registered manager was in post at the time of our inspection.

The service was not always safe because people and staff were not always protected from avoidable harm. The provider’s recruitment processes were not always robust and some of the risks associated with people’s care needs had not always been assessed or recorded effectively. Furthermore, whilst people were included in the planning and review of their care; their care plans and risk assessments did not always reflect their individual needs to ensure they received person-centred care.

People’s rights were not always protected because staff, including the registered manager did not always understand their responsibilities related to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the associated Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. Systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided to people were not always used effectively to identify or manage risks and it was unclear how the outcome of these processes had been used to drive improvements.

People were supported by staff that were reliable and punctual in meeting their needs and people were treated with kindness, dignity and respect. People’s needs were also met by staff that were trained and supported to carry out their role including supporting people with safe medication management. People were protected from the risk of abuse because staff were aware of signs and symptoms of abuse and knew what the reporting procedures were.

People knew how to complain if they were unhappy and were confident that their concerns would be acted upon in a timely manner. Staff also felt supported in their work by an approachable management team that promoted an open and transparent culture within the service.