Ewart House

Updated 26 August 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience who made phone calls to people and family members. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection as we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 17 July 2023 and ended on 31 July 2023. We visited the location office on 17 July 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

This information helps support our inspections. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

The inspection

On the day of the site visit, the registered manager was not available. Instead, the operations manager was present. We also met and spoke with the wellbeing coordinator and team leader. We also met and spoke with the housing manager.

We reviewed a range of records which included 8 people's care records, a sample of Medicines Administration Records (MARs) and records relating to the running of the service.

We spoke with 3 people who use the service and 8 family members to gather their feedback on the quality of care provided. We also spoke with 5 care staff.

The provider sent us further documentation we had requested following the site visit including information regarding training, medicines and quality assurance.

Updated 26 August 2023

About the service

Ewart House is an extra care housing service providing personal care to people. Ewart House is a purpose built block of flats containing 47 flats. The service provides support to older people to remain independent and live in their own flat within their community. A separate housing association is responsible for the running and maintenance of the building. The provision of personal care and the housing association are managed separately.

At the time of inspection, the service was providing personal care to 30 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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

Appropriate risk assessments were not always in place and some lacked detail. This could result in people receiving unsafe care. Improvements were needed in relation to risk assessments and we found a breach of regulation.

Recruitment checks were carried out prior to care staff being employed by the service. However, some references lacked information and there was a lack of evidence that some of these had been verified to check their authenticity. We have made a recommendation in respect of this.

The service had various systems in place to monitor the quality of the service being provided to people. However, they had failed to identify deficiencies we found in relation to medicines and staff recruitment.

People were protected from abuse. Staff we spoke were confident that if they raised any concerns with the registered manager, appropriate action would be taken.

Staff followed infection prevention and control guidance to minimise risks related to the spread of infection.

Staff supported people to eat and drink in line with their preferences.

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.

Feedback we obtained about the service was mixed. Some people and family members spoke positively about the care provided. However, some feedback indicated that people and family members were not satisfied with the care and support received. We raised this with the management team. They advised they would act on this and arrange conversations with people and family members to try and ensure their concerns were resolved.

People had an initial assessment prior to them receiving a service. This captured their needs, abilities and preferences.

Care plans included information about people's interests and important things in their life. Information documented was specific to each person. However, there was a lack of information about people’s cultural needs. We raised this with the operations manager.

Staff told us they were well supported by the registered manager. They were confident that the registered manager would listen and address any concerns if they raised them.

The operations manager was receptive to the feedback we provided and said that they would use this to drive improvements to the service.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 28 July 2022 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned comprehensive inspection to review the key questions, Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led and rate this service.

The inspection was prompted because the service has not had an inspection and a rating since it was first registered with us.

Enforcement and recommendations

We have identified one breach in relation to safe care and treatment during this inspection. We have also made recommendations in relation to staff recruitment.

We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

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.