Umbrella House

Updated 27 March 2018

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 7 February 2018 and was unannounced.

We started this inspection by visiting the office premises to speak with the registered manager, this and to review the records held on site. We also contacted families using the service to discuss the quality of care they received. This unannounced inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Before the inspection visit we looked at the information we held about Umbrella House including any concerns or compliments. We looked to see if we had received any statutory notifications from the provider. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We considered this information when planning our inspection to the home.

We contacted commissioners for health and social care, responsible for funding some of the children and young adults who used the agency and asked them for their views about the service. There were no concerns expressed about Umbrella House.

We spoke with three families whose child or young adult received support from Umbrella House. We spoke with five members of staff, with the registered manager and later received information from the local authority regarding the quality of care provided by the agency.

We looked at three support plans to see how these were developed and how the agency included and supported the choices and wishes of people. We looked at additional records that showed us how Umbrella House supported people; these included such records as medicine records, daily records, reviews of support plans and risk assessments. We also looked at staff recruitment and training.

Updated 27 March 2018

Umbrella House provides personal care to children and young adults in their own home. On the day of the inspection the manager informed us that 12 children and young adults were receiving support.

This inspection took place on 7 February 2018 and was undertaken by one inspector and was unannounced.

A registered manager was in post at the time of the inspection visit. This is a condition of the registration of the service. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People's risk assessments provided staff with information on how to support people safely, these were regularly reviewed and updated.

Staff had been trained in safeguarding (protecting people from abuse) and understood their CQC responsibilities in this area. CQC is the independent regulator of all health and social care in England. We are given powers by the government to register, monitor and inspect all health and care services.

All new members of staff had checks completed to ensure they were appropriate to work with the people who used the service. People we spoke with told us that they thought staff supported people's safety. They also thought that medicines were given safely and on time.

The local authority stated that they had no concerns regarding the delivery of service, quality of support or safeguarding. They said that staff were ready to adjust and amend support to meet the changing needs of the people..

Staff had been trained to ensure that they had the skills and knowledge to meet people's needs.

Staff understood their main responsibility under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) to allow, as much as possible, for people to have an effective choice about how they lived their lives.

People told us that their child or young adult receiving support was happy and liked the staff who supported them.

Care plans were developed for the individual and centred around their needs and choices. Activities were organised for people to enable integration into the local community if they chose to do so.

People we spoke with told us that they would tell staff if they had any concerns and were confident these would be quickly and appropriately dealt with. They also confirmed that there was regular communication with the registered manager and other members of staff.