Archived: Housing & Care 21 - Rotherham

Updated 21 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 checked 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 10 and 17 August 2016. The inspection was unannounced on the first day. The inspection was undertaken by one adult social care inspector.

At the time of our inspection there were 152 people who received a service from the agency. We visited two people to discuss the care provided and looked at their care records. We spoke with eight people who used the service on the telephone, three relatives and the local authority commissioners. The local authority contracts officer had carried out some quality checks the week of our inspection they visited 10 people who used the service and gave us feedback from these visits.

The provider had completed a provider information return (PIR). The PIR 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

During our inspection we also spoke with nine members of staff, which included care workers, care coordinators, quality administration officer, the regional manager and the new manager. We looked at records relating to people who used the service and staff, as well as the management of the service. This included reviewing five people’s care records, staff recruitment, training, support files, medication records, minutes of meetings, complaints records, safeguarding and notifications. We also spoke with a health care professional to gain their views of the service

Updated 21 September 2016

The inspection took place on 10 and 17 August 2016 and was unannounced on the first day. The service was taken over by a new provider in December 2014 and this was the first inspection since they registered as the new provider.

Housing and Care 21 Rotherham is a domiciliary care agency. The service is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service was predominantly supporting older people and people living with dementia. Care and support was co-ordinated from the office, which was based in Dinnington near Rotherham.

There was not a registered manager at the time of our inspection. 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 had left in 2014. A new manager had been appointed to manage two locations they commenced in post on 4 July 2016. The manager had commenced the registration process to register with CQC.

We found that people’s needs had been assessed before their care package commenced. Most people who used the service and their relatives that we spoke with told us they had been involved in creating and updating their care plans. The information included in the care records we saw identified people’s individual needs and preferences, as well as any risks associated with their care and the environment they lived in.

We saw evidence that staff had been trained to administer medication; however staff did not always follow the procedures, which put people at risk of not receiving medication as prescribed. The provider had identified this and was taking action at the time of our inspection.

People who used the service who we spoke with told us the care staff were very good, staff were kind caring and always stayed the required time ensuring care needs were met.

We found that staff we spoke with had an understanding of the legal requirements as required under the Mental Capacity Act (2005) Code of Practice. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets out how to act to support people who do not have the capacity to make some or all decisions about their care.

There were robust recruitment procedures in place. The provider was recruiting staff at the time of our inspection to ensure adequate staff were employed to meet people’s needs.

Staff had received supervision, although this had not always been as frequent as the provider’s policies required. This was had been due to staff shortages which were being rectified at the time of our inspection. However, staff we spoke with told us they felt supported. Annual appraisals were carried out, these ensured development and training to support staff to fulfil their roles and responsibilities was identified.

People who used the service told us they were aware of the complaints procedure and said they would contact the office if they had any problems. People said, the office staff are always available and deal with any issues immediately. However people told us if they wanted to contact the office out of hours this always proved difficult and on occasions could not get hold of anyone.

People who used the service had opportunity to give feedback by completing questionnaires which were sent twice yearly. The provider also asked people’s relatives and other professionals what they thought of the service and used people’s feedback to improve the service.

The provider had a system to monitor the quality of the service provided. However, at the time of our inspection the provider had identified these were not effective, therefore new audits and systems for monitoring the quality of the service provided were being introduced. These needed to be completed and embedded into practice.