Alina Homecare Devizes

Updated 2 July 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 31 May 2022 and ended on 20 June 2022. We visited the location’s office on 31 May 2022 and 8 June 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used information gathered as part of the monitoring activity that took place on 9 February 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people and seven relatives about their experiences of using this service. We spoke with eight members of staff, the registered manager and head of quality and assurance.

We looked at care and support records including medicines records for nine people. We also reviewed records for compliments, complaints, accidents and incidents, staff recruitment files for four member of staff, quality monitoring, staff meeting minutes, newsletters for people and relatives. Various records for the management of the service were reviewed including policies and procedures.

Updated 2 July 2022

About the service

Alina Homecare Devizes is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 21 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People’s medicines were managed safely. Systems were in place to make sure staff had guidance for ‘as required’ medicines. The provider used an electronic medicines management system which enabled office staff to receive an alert when a medicine was not administered. Action could be taken immediately to make sure people had their medicines on time.

At our last inspection we found quality monitoring had not identified some shortfalls with clinical training for staff. At this inspection we found improvement had been made. Staff working with people with specific clinical needs had received the training they needed and been assessed for competence.

Quality monitoring systems were in place at the branch level and at a higher provider level. Office staff carried out various checks to make sure staff were working to the provider’s standards. This included unannounced checks in people’s homes and telephone calls to people and their relatives.

Risk management plans were in place to give staff personalised guidance on how best to support people safely. Plans had been reviewed and updated when needed. Incidents and accidents were recorded and reviewed by the management to makes sure any action needed was taken. The provider also had oversight of incidents to help with identifying any patterns or trends.

People were supported by enough staff. Some comments about staffing demonstrated some people felt there was a shortage of staff. The registered manager told us they had enough staff for current packages but were in the process of recruiting more staff. They told us they would like to meet the local demand for care at home but were not able to take on any new people at this time. There had been no missed visits and people and relatives told us they felt the service was safe.

Staff had been recruited safely and provided with training and support for their roles. Staff told us they felt well supported by the provider and there was good teamwork. Staff could attend meetings and visit the office when they needed to. The provider had a range of staff rewards on offer including ‘carer of the month’ and financial bonuses.

People were able to share their views regularly. The provider carried out quality calls via the telephone and an annual survey. Results from 2021 demonstrated that across the provider’s services people were happy with their care worker. Audits were completed regularly, and the branch had a twice-yearly full audit carried out by the provider’s quality team.

Overall comments about the management of the service were positive. People, relatives and staff said the management were approachable and would deal with any of their issues. Some people and relatives preferred to communicate with the deputy manager as they appreciated her depth of knowledge for their particular care situations and commented positively on her timely responses.

Staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and received training and guidance on working safely during COVID-19. Staff were testing for COVID-19 following the current government guidance. People told us staff wore their PPE when needed and kept their homes clean during their visits.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 13 March 2020). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation.

At our last inspection we recommended that the provider considered best practice about management of ‘as required’ medicines. At this inspection we found the provider had acted on the recommendation and made the improvement required.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 14 January 2020. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Alina Homecare Devizes on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.