Archived: Daybreak Support Services

Updated 8 September 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 29 June 2016 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. Due to technical problems, a PIR was not available and we took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

Before we carried out this inspection, we also reviewed the information we held about this service including notifications. A notification is information about events that the registered persons are required, by law, to tell us about. We also made contact with the local authority quality assurance team to ask their views on the quality of the service.

We spoke with two people who used the service and one relative. We also spoke with staff and looked at care plans and associated records. We observed how people were cared for when they visited the provider office. We obtained the permission of people to visit them at their home to observe how staff interacted with them. This helped us understand people’s experience of the support they received.

We spoke with three care staff, the team leader, and the HR manager. During the inspection, we looked at two people’s care plans as well as records in relation to the management of the service. This included staff recruitment records, staff supervisions, complaints and quality assurance records.

Updated 8 September 2016

This inspection took place on 29 June 2016 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because it is small and we needed to be sure that they would be in. Daybreak Support Services provides care and support to people who have learning difficulties living in their own homes and in supported living accommodation. There were 12 people receiving support at the time of our inspection.

The provider has another service, The Anchorage, which is situated less than a mile away from the office where Daybreak Support Services is operated from. The Anchorage was also inspected as part of this visit. The two services have a number of staff who work across both of them. Records for both services are also held at the Daybreak Support Services offices.

There was a registered manager in place. 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. The registered manager was not available during this visit. We met with the providers HR manager during this visit. They were planning to apply to take over the registration of the service in the future.

The provider had a robust recruitment procedure in place. People were supported by staff who had only been employed after the provider had carried out checks. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to report any concerns and knew how to report this within the provider organisation.

People were supported by staff who had received an induction into the service and appropriate training, professional development and supervision to enable them to meet people's individual needs. There were enough staff to meet people's needs and to enable them to engage with people in a relaxed and unhurried manner.

Medicines were stored safely and only administered by staff that were appropriately trained. Medicine administration records were up to date with no gaps in recording. This demonstrated there were systems in place to ensure medicines were administered in line with doctors' instructions. Healthcare professionals such as chiropodists, opticians, GPs and dentists were involved in people's care when necessary.

Relatives were complimentary about the service and were made to feel welcome and could visit whenever they liked. There was information available if people or their relatives wanted complain.

The management team assessed and monitored the quality of the service through audits that were undertaken.