Archived: Synergy Homecare - Salford

Synergy homecare Salford is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community in the Salford and Bolton Area. It provides a service to older adults. At this inspection there were 294 people using the service.

At our last inspection we rated the service good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good.

This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered 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 legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The registered manager was supported in their role by a deputy manager who assisted with the oversight of the day to day running of the service.

People's needs continued to be safely met. There were sufficient numbers of staff available to meet people's needs in a way which people were happy with. People reported they did not feel rushed with their daily routine.

Staff training was in date and training topics were appropriate to people’s needs which meant staff had the skills and knowledge they needed to provide people with safe and informative care.

Adequate risk assessments were in place to recognise people’s positive risk taking and environmental risk assessments were in place both internal and external to protect people using the service, their visitors and staff.

Accidents and incidents were recorded and documented and changes were made to ensure risks were minimised.

Recruitment systems were in place which were robust and appropriate support was provided to new members of staff in the form of induction, supervision and training.

Safeguarding procedures were in place. Staff understood the importance of protecting people from abuse and avoidable harm and gave examples about how to report a concern to service management or external agencies such as the local safeguarding team.

People told us they received support that was caring, friendly and responsive. Staff were able to demonstrate they understood what was required of them, to provide each person with support in line with their individual preference and to ensure independence was promoted which enabled people to live as independently as possible.

People were treated with dignity and their right to make choices about how they preferred their care to be provided was respected. People's rights were also protected. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; provider policies supported this practice.

Pre- assessments were completed prior to a new care package commencing; the service also worked in partnership with the person’s social worker, this ensured the service gained a thorough assessment of the person’s need and were able to make an informed judgement about their ability to meet the person’s needs safely and effectively.

People were supported to eat a diet of their choice and healthy eating was promoted. Staff supported people to have access to health services in the community where required to maintain good health. Staff followed the advice of healthcare professionals in meeting people's needs where appropriate.

Medicines practice was administered safely and people reported they received their medicines as prescribed. Medicines audits and staff observations were completed to ensure management oversight was in place to identify any potential bad practice.

People knew how to raise concerns and complaints and the provider had appropriate policies and procedures in place to manage them appropriately.

Systems were in place to monitor the on-going compliance of the service and people’s views were actively sought and acted upon.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We found medicines were safely administered and people who used the service received their medicines in the way that had been prescribed for them.

We looked at individual medication administration records (MAR) of seven people who used the service and found that these had been fully completed.

A person who used the service told us; 'They are very respectful and always ask for my permission before they do anything.'

We found care was planned and delivered in a way that was intended to ensure people's safety and welfare.

One person who used the service told us; 'They come around every so often to go over the care plan. They are very responsive to my needs and have recently increased the number of visits I need.'

We found evidence to support that medicines, once administered were not correctly recorded.

The provider operated a system of unannounced 'spot checks' to monitor the quality of care provided by staff.

People who used the service were able to tell us that they were aware of the complaints process and what action to take.

We spoke with four people who used the service. One person told us 'I have no complaints ' please write that in big letters', another person said 'they do whatever I ask them to do' and a third said "my carer cares for me as much as my relatives. All the people we spoke with, who used the service, were happy with the care they received.

We saw that all relevant policies and procedures were in place. We saw evidence that people who used the service were safeguarded from the risk of abuse and the staff demonstrated an awareness of safeguarding and mental capacity issues and were confident on reporting procedures. We saw that safeguarding concerns were followed up appropriately with reference to the person's mental capacity status, wishes and choices.

We saw that there were various systems in place to allow the continual monitoring and improvement of the service delivery. There was a complaints procedure in place and complaints were followed up appropriately.