Archived: Guinness Care Forest

Guinness Care Forest provides personal care support and practical assistance to people who live in their own properties. The service also provides care and support to people who live in self-contained flats as part of an Extra Care Housing Scheme called Hanover Court.

At the time of the inspection 68 people received personal care support both in the community and at Hanover Court. Some people living at Hanover Court are independent and require little or no support from the service. Guinness Care also funded and operated an emergency call bell system at Hanover Couty. This meant they responded to emergency situations for any person living at either scheme regardless of whether they received personal care support or not.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only regulates the regulated activity of personal care; this inspection report only relates to the provision of personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People told us they were comfortable and happy when being supported by care staff employed by Guinness Care.

• People spoke positively about the relationships they had formed with care staff and enjoyed the conversations they had with them.

• People received their care as planned. People living in the community told us they received their calls as plans and were informed of any delays due to unforeseen circumstances.

• People living at Hanover Court spoke positively about how staff responded to their life line (emergency call bell system). They told us staff came quickly and treated them with compassion.

• Care staff supported people with their changing healthcare needs and provided people with additional support when required.

• Staff told us they had the training and support they required. Staff spoke positively about recent changes within the organisation, including the recruitment of the new manager. Staff told us the service was constantly improving and were happy with the continuous support they had received from care co-ordinators.

• People were protected from the risk of abuse and harm as staff followed clear processes regarding safeguarding, the management or people’s prescribed medicines and where necessary their financial records.

• The manager had a clear vision for the service and was working with local authority commissioners and the landlords of both schemes to improve the quality of service people received. The manager was also working with healthcare professionals to improve knowledge in relation to the service provided at Extra Care Sheltered Housing schemes.

• The Scheme care co-ordinator, community care co-ordinator, the manager and provider had clear systems to monitor and drive improvements throughout the service. A development plan was in place to inform and track these improvements. This included a new care planning and monitoring system.

The service met the characteristics of Good overall. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

This was the first time the service has been inspected under their current registrations.

Why we inspected:

We inspected this service as part of our ongoing Adult Social Care inspection programme.

Follow up:

We will meet with the provider, landlord for both schemes and local authority commissioners to gain a better understanding of the joint working arrangements for people living in local Extra Care Housing Schemes. We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme.