Archived: Solihull Care Domiciliary Service

Updated 30 March 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 2 February 2016 and the visit was announced. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

The inspection was undertaken by two inspectors.

When planning the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked at the information received from our ‘Share Your Experience’ web forms and the statutory notifications the service had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. We also reviewed the information in the provider’s information return (PIR). This is a form we asked the provider to send to us before we visited. The PIR asked the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they planned to make. We found the PIR reflected the service provided.

Before the visit we sent surveys to people who used the service to obtain their views of the service they received, we also sent surveys to staff. Surveys were returned from twenty four people, three relatives and six staff members. We spoke with seven people by telephone, (five people who used the service and two relatives).

We also contacted the local authority commissioners to find out their views of the service provided. These are people who contract care and support services paid for by the local authority. They had received six concerns about the service which they made the provider aware of, and the provider had responded to.

During our visit we spoke with three care workers and staff working in the office including the care manager and the registered manager. We reviewed three people’s care plans to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We checked care workers had been recruited safely and were trained to deliver the care and support people required. We looked at other records related to people’s care and how the service operated including the service’s quality assurance audits and records of complaints.

Updated 30 March 2016

Solihull Care Domiciliary Service provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of our visit the agency supported 100 people with personal care and employed 57 care workers.

We visited the offices of Solihull Care on 2 February 2016. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 and their relatives told us they felt safe using the service and care workers understood how to protect people from abuse and keep them safe. However, some people were not satisfied with the amount of different care workers that visited them. They told us they would prefer to receive consistent care and support from a fewer number of care workers.

There were processes to minimise risks associated with people’s care. These included risk assessments and safe systems to manage people’s medicines. Staff we spoke with had a good understanding of these processes.

The provider checked the suitability of care workers to work with people who used the service during their recruitment. There were enough suitably trained care workers to deliver care and support to people. Care workers received an induction when they started working for the service and completed regular training to support them in meeting people's needs effectively.

People told us care workers were kind and caring and had the right skills and experience to provide the care and support they required. People received care from staff who were respectful and ensured people’s privacy and dignity was maintained.

The managers understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), and care workers gained people's consent before they provided personal care.

Staff were knowledgeable about people’s needs. Most care plans and risk assessments contained relevant information for staff, to help them provide the care people needed in a way they preferred.

People knew how to raise a complaint about the service if they needed to and information about making a complaint was available for people. Staff felt supported to do their work and people felt able to contact the office and management team at any time.

There were systems to monitor and review the quality of service people received and understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through regular communication with people and staff, returned surveys and spot checks on care workers’ practices.