6 September 2017
During a routine inspection
The manager in post had applied to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.
People were supported in their own home by staff that were able to meet their needs safely. Their needs were assessed prior to taking up the service and their agreed care plans reflected people’s needs and preferences in relation to the care provided. Staff had the skills and knowledge they needed to provide people’s care. There were sufficient numbers of staff available in the team to work in the community and meet people’s needs in a timely way.
People benefitted from receiving personal care and support from trained staff that were caring, friendly, and responsive to their changing needs. They 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 protected.
People received a service from a staff team that knew their job. There were risk assessments in place to reduce and manage the risks to people’s health and welfare. Staff understood their role in caring for people that lacked capacity to make specific decisions under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Staff understood the need to protect people from harm and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns. Staff ensured that people that required support to manage their medicines received their medicines as prescribed.
People were protected from the risks associated with the recruitment of staff by robust recruitment systems and the provision of appropriate training to all new recruits.
People benefitted from a service that was appropriately managed so that they received their service in a timely and reliable way. Staff were supported by a manager that was receptive to ideas for improvement and the staff team were committed to providing consistently good standards of care.
People knew how to raise concerns and complaints and the provider had appropriate policies and procedures in place to manage such eventualities. There were also systems in place to assess and monitor the on-going quality of the service. People’s views about the quality of their service were sought and acted upon.