Creative Support - Barrow Personalised Services

Updated 10 January 2019

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.

We gave 24 hours' notice of our visit on 8 November 2018 because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that a registered manager and/or another senior person would be available to speak with us. On the first day of the inspection we visited the office to speak with the two registered managers, the nominated individual and care staff. On the second day of the inspection, 12 November 2018 we visited people who used the service in their homes to gather their views and look at the care records they held. We arranged to return to the agency office on 19 November 2018 to follow up on the observations we had made on our visits and to give feedback to the registered manager. The inspection was carried out by an adult social care inspector.

At the time of our inspection the agency supported 33 people with their personal care. During our inspection we visited five people in their homes to ask for their views of the service and spoke with a relative. During the inspection process we spoke with 11 members of staff across the service, the two registered managers and the nominated individual. We also contacted the local authority commissioning and social work teams for their views of the service.

We looked at the care records for eight people who used the service, the care and medication records of the people we visited, the staff training matrix and records and recruitment records for six new staff. We looked at quality assurance checks being done and findings from questionnaires that the provider had sent to people to see how the registered provider monitored the quality and safety of the service. We also looked at records and procedures relating to compliments and complaints. We reviewed the information we held about the service, such as notifications we had received from the registered provider. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

Before the inspection, we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This 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 reviewed the completed PIR and previous inspection reports before the inspection.

We used a planning tool to collate all this evidence and information prior to visiting the service.

Updated 10 January 2019

This inspection of Creative Support - Cumbria Homecare Service took place between 8 and 19 November 2018. The service was last inspected between December 2015 and March 2016. At that inspection the service was rated as good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

Creative Support – Cumbria Homecare Service (Furness) provides personal care to people living in their own homes. The service is managed from offices in Barrow in Furness. The agency provides domiciliary care to people living in the Furness district of Cumbria. The service supports adults of all ages, who have a variety of care needs due to illness, aging or disability.

This service also provides care and support to people living in eight ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

There were two registered managers employed at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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 this was a reliable and responsive service that was well managed and that they received the support they needed from staff they knew well. They described the staff as caring and friendly and told us that they felt safe receiving support from this service. People's dignity and privacy were promoted by the staff supporting them.

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 supported this practice and we found that people were asked for their consent before care was provided and the decisions they made were respected.

The service was providing people with personalised care and support and were particularly good at supporting people to express and work to meet personal goals and aspirations.

Risks to people had been identified, reviewed and were being managed. The risk assessments included people’s medication risks, falls, mobility, equipment in use and the environment people lived in that might affect their safety and that of the staff who visited.

Staff received training relevant to their roles, including safeguarding vulnerable adults. Staff had received supervision from the senior care and management team. Only staff who had received training in safe medicine administration were able to give medicines to people.

There were enough staff employed to meet people's needs and recruitment procedures were thorough. The care staff knew the support people required and people had been involved in planning their care and support.

Auditing and quality monitoring systems were in place that allowed the service to show it was safe and well managed. Staff told us they felt supported in their roles and valued by management.

Further information is in the detailed findings below