Agincare

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. This is the first assessment for this service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. Staff listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. People and staff felt confident in raising issues and told us they were confident senior staff would address their concerns. The registered manager had a good oversight of incidents, accidents and complaints. They had used feedback to implement lessons learnt to continually make improvements and embed good practice. An example of this was improving the content and quality of staff training in response to feedback where improvements were needed.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care, in which safety was managed or monitored. They made sure there was continuity of care, including when people moved between different services. The provider ensured care was organised flexibly, with adjustments made to meet people’s changing needs. This included when people attended appointments, when their health needs changed or when they were admitted to or discharged from hospital. This helped to promote continuity in their care services.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to understand what being safe meant to them and the best way to achieve that. Staff concentrated on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm and neglect. The provider shared concerns quickly and appropriately. People and relatives told us they felt safe receiving support from the staff. Staff had a good understanding of safeguarding procedures and understood how to recognise the signs of abuse. The provider had effective policies and procedures in place around safeguarding. Senior staff demonstrated a thorough approach to investigating safeguarding concerns, to help reduce the risk of people suffering abuse or coming to avoidable harm.

The provider worked with people to understand and manage risks by thinking holistically. Staff provided care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them. People told us staff effectively managed risks related to their care and the support they received was safe. The provider had effective systems to monitor care call times/durations, care tasks completed and medicines administration. This helped senior staff to have real time oversight and pro-actively pick up issues or concerns related to care. The provider also had effective policies and procedures around business continuity and out of office support. This helped to ensure the service ran safely in the event of an emergency. Risks related to people’s care were assessed and monitored. People’s care plans detailed steps for staff to follow to help keep people safe. Staff had received training in line with people needs to help reduce risks. This helped to ensure they had the skills and training to effectively manage and reduce risks.

The provider detected and controlled potential risks in the care environment. They made sure equipment and technology supported the delivery of safe care. The provider carried out assessments of people’s home environments to identify and reduce any risks related to the delivery of care. There were clear instructions for staff, outlining the safe use of any care related equipment, which helped to ensure it was used and maintained appropriately. The provider had invested in technological solutions to aid the delivery of safe care. This included electronic care planning systems and telephone systems, which helped to improve safety and the provider’s ability to monitor how care was delivered.

The provider made sure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff, who received effective support, supervision and development. People told us they received consistent staff at the agreed times. They told us staff were well trained and competent in their role. There were effective systems to organise and utilise staffing resources to enable prompt response to people’s changing needs. This promoted the consistency and suitability of the staff people received. Staff received training relevant to their role and systems were in place to promote their ongoing learning and development, including regular supervision, checks of their competency and shared learning through team meetings. The provider had an internal recruitment team, who helped to ensure new staff were subject to the appropriate recruitment checks as required.

The provider assessed and managed the risk of infection. They detected and controlled the risk of it spreading and shared concerns with appropriate agencies promptly. People raised no concerns in relation to infection control. They told us staff wore appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) whilst they were providing care. The provider had effective infection control policies and procedures in place. Staff told us there were adequate supplies of PPE, but raised concerns that some newer staff did not always use this equipment appropriately. The registered manager was aware of this feedback and had addressed concerns with both the individual staff and to the wider staff team. This helped to ensure staff were following effective infection control procedures.

The provider made sure that medicines management was safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. The provider had policies and procedures developed in line with national guidance, to help ensure staff were following best practice. People’s care plans detailed the support people needed to manage their medicines and the support their relatives provide, any associated risks and levels of independence people wished to maintain. Staff had a good understanding of best practice in medicines administration. The provider had effective systems to electronically monitor medicines administration and update medicines records in real time if people’s prescriptions changed. There was a system to audit people’s medicines records and care plans. This helped to ensure they were accurate, correctly completed and reflected people’s needs.