Archived: Sturminster Newton - Care at Home

Updated 15 June 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 13, 16 and 17 May 2016.The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service to people in their own homes and we needed to be sure that someone would be at the office and to assist us to arrange home visits.

Before the inspection we reviewed all information we had about the service. This included notifications which the provider had informed us about such as safeguarding or changes to the service. A notification is the way providers tell us important information that affects the care people receive At the time of our inspection a Provider Information Record (PIR) had not been requested. A 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. We gathered this information from the provider during our inspection.

We spoke with three people in their own homes and observed interactions with three staff. We contacted a number of people who used the service, seven people and one relative spoke with us. We spoke with 12 staff which included the management team and seven care workers. We looked at nine care records and five staff files. We also spoke with one healthcare professional and contacted a representative from the local authority who had knowledge of the service. We saw staff training records and other information about the management of the service.

Updated 15 June 2016

This inspection took place on 13, 17 and 18 May 2016. It was carried out by one inspector.

Sturminster Newton Care at Home is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the service provided personal care and support for 49 people. The core hours of the service were 7 am to 10 pm. There was a 24 hour on-call service available.

There was not a registered manager in post. 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 previous registered manager had de-registered in December 2015. A new manager had been appointed and had applied to the Care Quality Commission to be a registered manager, their application was in progress.

People were positive about the care and support they received. They told us staff treated them kindly and we saw people engaged in conversations and light-hearted discussions. Staff demonstrated that they knew individual preferences. Care plans were person centred and took into account people’s social and personal histories so that care was individualised and represented what the person hoped to achieve.

People were supported to ensure they had enough to eat and drink and staff had an understanding of how some people needed to be encouraged to eat their meals. We saw staff monitored what some people ate where it was needed and actions taken to ensure people’s nutritional needs were met.

Staff were aware of what constitutes abuse and what actions they should take if they thought someone was being abused. Relevant checks were carried out before staff started work. For example references were obtained and criminal records checks were completed.

Medicines were managed safely. Staff had received training and there were monitoring systems in place to check people had received the correct medicines at the right time.

People’s risks were assessed and plans developed to minimise the risk of them coming to harm. There was sufficient guidance for staff to ensure they supported people safely. Such as one person was at risk of skin damage , there was detailed guidance for staff to support the person in such a way to reduce the risk of them developing skin damage.

Staff had an understanding of the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and talked to us about how they supported people to make their own decisions. People were provided with choices about how they would like to receive care and support.

Management were committed to making continual improvements to the quality of care. This included a commitment to fostering community links such as dementia awareness and expanding what the service was able to offer people.

There were sufficient staff to ensure people received their visits as planned. People told us they mostly received visits on time and were contacted if the care worker was running late due to traffic or an emergency.

The quality of the service was monitored on an on-going basis through observations of staff during visits as well as consideration of accidents and incidents and feedback from people and staff.