United Response - Cornwall DCA was rated Requires Improvement overall following its April 2023 inspection, with breaches of Regulation 18 due to persistent staffing shortfalls that limited people's choices and activities, alongside inaccurate medicines records and delayed staff training. Safe and well-led key questions both declined from Good, while effective, caring and responsive retained their previous Good ratings.
Concerns (6)
critical
Staffing levels
: “There were not enough staff available to consistently provide the correct level of support to all people.”
moderateMedication management: “Medicine's records were not always completed accurately or in line with best practice. Audits and checks had not always identified these errors.”
moderateStaff training: “Staff had not received training promptly to understand how to safely manage situations when people were distressed.”
moderateGovernance: “Due to a lack of staff, some of these had not been completed as regularly as required by the provider's governance systems.”
moderateConsent / capacity: “People's records did not clearly reflect how conclusions about people's capacity to make certain decisions had been reached.”
minorRecord keeping: “A full career history was not being sought by the provider.”
Strengths
· People received kind and compassionate care from staff who understood individual communication needs.
· Staff understood how to recognise and raise safeguarding concerns and received safeguarding training.
· Individualised risk assessments were in place and positive risk taking was encouraged.
· Incidents involving distress were recorded, reviewed, analysed and used to update guidance.
· Relatives provided overwhelmingly positive feedback about staff relationships and quality of care.