First inspection of a newly registered small domiciliary care agency supporting three people, rated Good across all five key questions. Minor improvements identified around adding more detail to risk management plans, developing audit and formal feedback systems as the service grows.
Concerns (3)
minorCare planning
: “One person's care plan described as 'becoming giddy at times.' Despite no detail to tell staff what action they should take when this happened”
minorGovernance: “Going forward, the registered manager understood further processes of audit would need to be developed in order to maintain effective governance when more people used the service.”
minorCommunication with families: “feedback was, to date, informal and verbally gathered from people and their relatives. However, they realised a formal feedback recording system was needed”
Strengths
· Consistent staff who knew people very well and how to keep them safe
· Safe recruitment with references, identity checks and DBS checks completed
· Staff completed safeguarding, medicines, moving and handling and dementia training before lone working
· No missed or late care calls
· Relatives described staff as 'fantastic', 'wonderful' and 'lovely' and the registered manager as caring
Quality-Statement breakdown (21)
safe: Systems and processes to safeguard people from the risk of abuseGood
safe: Assessing risk, safety monitoring and managementGood
safe: Staffing and recruitmentGood
safe: Using medicines safelyGood
safe: Preventing and controlling infectionGood
safe: Learning lessons when things go wrongGood
effective: Ensuring consent to care and treatment in line with law and guidanceGood
effective: Staff support: induction, training, skills and experienceGood
effective: Supporting people to eat and drink enough to maintain a balanced dietGood
effective: Staff work with other agencies to provide consistent, effective, timely careGood
caring: Ensuring people are well treated and supported; respecting equality and diversityGood
caring: Respecting and promoting people's privacy, dignity and independenceGood
responsive: Planning personalised care to ensure people have choice and control and to meet their needs and preferencesGood
responsive: Meeting people's communication needsGood
responsive: Supporting people to develop and maintain relationships to avoid social isolationGood
responsive: Improving care quality in response to complaints or concernsGood
responsive: End of life care and supportNot rated
well-led: Managers being clear about their roles, and understanding quality performance, risks and regulatory requirementsGood
well-led: How the provider understands and acts on the duty of candourGood
well-led: Engaging and involving people using the service, the public and staffGood
well-led: Continuous learning and improving care; Working in partnership with othersGood