Stourport Nursing and Homecare Limited

Stourport Nursing and Homecare is a domiciliary care agency. They provide personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. They provide a service to older adults and people who have dementia. At the time of our inspection 16 people received personal care in their own homes.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People’s risks were not always assessed and reviewed. Staff did not always have the required training to support people with complex health needs. Medicines were not always safely managed, records were not always effective. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Governance systems were not always effective in identifying when people's care plans had not been reviewed.

There was a positive culture throughout the service, people and families felt safe and were happy with the support provided to them. Feedback was gathered from people, staff, and relatives to help identify where improvements or changes needed to be made. The provider understood their legal responsibilities and when to be open and honest when things go wrong and worked in partnership with other agencies.

People were supported by staff that knew them well and were kind and caring in their approach. Relatives said they were happy with the care people received and had confidence in the registered manager. Staff had received training on how to recognise and report abuse and felt they could speak up and would be listened to. People were treated with dignity and respect and received a service that could be flexible to meet their changing needs. The provider involved people in the planning and reviewing of their care packages.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 5 January 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and governance at this inspection.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

At our last inspection on 20 October 2015 we rated the service as good. At this inspection we found the service remained good.

Stourport Nursing and Homecare is a domiciliary care agency. They provide personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. They provide a service to older adults, younger disabled adults, and people who have dementia. At the time of our inspection 33 people received personal care in their own homes.

Not everyone using Stourport Nursing and Homecare receives the regulated activity, personal care. CQC only inspects the service which provides ‘personal care’ to people, such as, help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

There was a registered manager in place 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.

People told us they felt safe with the care they received from the staff who supported them. Staff demonstrated good knowledge in how they were to protect people from harm, they recognised the signs of abuse and knew how to report this. The registered manager had identified potential risks to people and had put plans in place to support staff. This was to reduce the risk to people without taking away people’s right to make decisions about their care. There were enough staff to support people’s care needs. People were supported with their medicines in a safe way. Staff understood the importance of reducing the risk of infection to keep people safe.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice. We found people required support to prepare meals staff supported them with this. Staff worked with external healthcare professionals and followed their guidance and advice about how to support the person.

People’s views and decisions they had made about their care respected by staff who supported them. People and relatives felt the staff team were kind and friendly and treated them with respect.

People received personalised care which met their needs in a timely way. People had access to information about how they could complain about the service. Where the registered manager had received complaints, these had been responded to, with a satisfactory outcome for the person who had raised the complaint.

People told us they had the opportunity to raise their suggestions and ideas about how the service was run. People felt they could ring the registered manager when they wanted to and they would listen to them. Staff said they felt supported by the registered manager to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively, through training and daily contact. Staff felt involved in the service and said they felt able to share their ideas in the way in which the service was run. People, relatives and staff felt the registered manager was approachable and listened to them. We found checks the registered manager completed on the service focused upon the experiences of people.

People were complimentary about the care and support that they received. One person told us: 'The most important thing is that they put you at ease. They'll do anything I ask. They're very good.' Another person said: 'It's a different face, a different person to chat to. They always ask how you've been. If I need anything I just ask them. Nothing's too much trouble for them.' This meant that people felt the agency was meeting their individual needs.

Staff had been recruited in an appropriate way and checks had been undertaken to ensure that they were suitable to care for vulnerable people.

People were cared for, or supported by, suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff.

The provider had systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.

There was a system in place for people to make complaints if they were not happy with any aspect of the service.

People were complimentary about the care and support that they received. One person told us, 'They're extremely good. They've got a friendly atmosphere.' Another person said, 'Nothing is too much trouble or bother. They'll try and juggle things around to meet my needs.' This meant that people felt the agency was meeting their individual needs.

We found that people who used the agency were protected from the risk of abuse.

People were cared for, or supported by, suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff.

The provider had systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.