DCA Essex

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

At the previous assessment the provider was in breach of regulation because they had not ensured effective processes were in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. At this assessment the provider had made enough improvement and was no longer in breach of regulation for Good Governance.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

There was a shared culture to provide person centred care and promote choice and independence. The culture of DCA Essex had improved since our last assessment. Staff spoke positively about the support received from management. Staff seemed to be under less pressure. A staff member said, “We have good training and support from our management.” Other staff reaffirmed that training was good.

The provider had a clear statement of purpose and description of the values which the staff team aimed to work in line with. Staff had supervision and team meetings where they shared ideas and agreed shared goals to work towards.

Staff told us the service was led by suitably competent and approachable managers. The feedback we received from staff about the managers was positive. Comments included, “I really enjoy working for Achieve Together, our training is excellent and get a lot of support.”

At the time of our assessment there was a registered manager. There was also a manager who has applied to become registered who will replace the current registered person due to internal promotion. The manager had the relevant skills, knowledge, and experience to lead the service. They were aware of the responsibilities of the role and had implemented some improvements around emergency medicines during their time at the service.

The provider valued and listened to the views of staff. Staff told us the provider encouraged them to speak up and had informed them on external bodies to voice their concerns to and gave examples of local authorities and CQC. Families told us they felt confident to raise concerns both with the management team and the staff.

The provider promoted an open and inclusive culture which sought the views of people using the service, their relatives, and staff who worked for them. People in shared houses had group meetings where they could speak openly. People had access to advocates. People were part of their local community giving them a wider network of people to speak openly with.

A staff member said, “I feel valued, and I feel comfortable to approach my manager if I have a concern or issue. I feel good about working for Achieve Together.”

The provider had a diverse staff team. Staff told us they worked as a team and helped each other. There were processes to ensure that recruitment was fair. The pre-assessment for people is based on the provider’s ability to ensure they can meet the person’s needs.

The manager and staff members told us there were several audits and quality checks carried out to monitor the service and ensure it continued to provide a good service. These included spot checks and staff competency assessments. Responsibilities had been shared across services with suitability trained staff. The manager was able to explain their role and statutory requirements for reporting of notifiable incidents.

Systems were in place to promote a positive culture, transparency, learning and improvement. At the last assessment the provider was in breach of Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act, [Good Governance] because the provider had not ensured effective processes were in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. At this assessment the provider had made improvement and had robust systems which included overseeing staff training, observing staff working practises, medicines management and overseeing incidents and accidents including complaints. Audits were analysed and trends identified for where lessons could be learnt. The provider was in the process of applying to change the registered manager to a new manager who was already in post and suitable trained for the role.

We did not look at Partnerships and communities during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The management team told us they had learnt from the last assessment and had implemented changes across the organisation as a result of lessons learnt. This included recruitment, staff training and medicines management.

The provider had established processes to record any incidents, accidents, complaints and other audits. These were analysed to identify any shortfalls and learn lessons. There was an improvement plan which pulled together any areas of improvement from the different audits that were completed . The improvement plans were monitored and detailed who was responsible for each action.