Archived: Care at Home Services (South East) Limited Sussex Weald

Care at Home Services (South East) Limited Sussex Weald is a service providing care to people in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received the regulated activity of 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. At the time of our inspection, the agency was providing support with personal care to 156 people.

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

Systems were not always effective at keeping people safe and best practice was not always followed to protect people from the risk of infection. People had detailed risk assessment in place and were administered their medicines appropriately. Recruitment at the service was conducted safely.

Communication with people was not always good and the risks of deviating from national guidance in relation COVID-19 had not been considered. People and their relatives spoke positively about the registered manager and the service had worked well in partnership with health and social care professionals.

The registered manager carried out detailed assessments of people's needs before support started and staff received appropriate training and supervision for their role. Referrals were made to health and social care professionals appropriately when people's needs changed.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People's care plans were reflective of their needs, including the support they needed with their healthcare, medicines, nutrition and personal care. People were encouraged and supported to take part in activities and staff treated people with respect and dignity.

People received personalised care and the service worked flexibly in order to meet people's needs. Staff said they had enough time to meet people’s care and support needs and any complaints were responded to promptly with actions followed up.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support,

right care, right culture. People who used the service could live as full a life as possible and

achieve the best possible outcomes. People using the service received planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that was appropriate and inclusive for them. Staff understood how to communicate with people effectively to ascertain and respect their wishes. People were supported with dignity and empowered to maintain important relationships, to access their local community and supported to prevent becoming socially isolated.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was requires improvement, published on 7 February 2019.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about infection control and staff. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.