Archived: Positive Life Choices

The inspection took place on 16 and 17 December 2015. The inspection was announced. This was because the service was a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that someone would be available so we could carry out our inspection.

Positive Life Choices is a Domiciliary Care service that provides personal care and support to people with learning disabilities and older people who live in their own home. The service covers the Darlington area and at the time of our inspection provided support to 102 people.

The service had a manager who had submitted their application to be the registered manager. 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.

We spoke with a range of different staff members; supervisors, care staff and the training manager who told us that the manager was always available and approachable. Throughout the day we saw people who used the service and staff were comfortable and relaxed with the manager and each other. The atmosphere was relaxed and we saw that staff interacted with each other and the people who used the service in a person centred way and were encouraging, friendly, positive and respectful.

From looking at people’s care plans we saw they were written in plain English and in a person centred way and made good use of pictures, personal history and described individuals’ care, treatment, wellbeing and support needs. These were regularly reviewed and updated by the care staff and the manager.

Individual care plans contained risk assessments. These identified risks and described the measures and interventions to be taken to ensure people were protected from the risk of harm. The care records we viewed also showed us that people’s health was monitored and referrals were made to other health care professionals where necessary for example: their GP, mental health team and care managers.

Our observations during the inspection showed us that people who used the service were supported in a person centred way by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their individual needs and wishes within their own homes and within the community. The recruitment process that we looked into was safe and inclusive.

When we looked at the staff training records and spoke with the training manager we could see staff were supported to maintain and develop their skills through training and development opportunities. The staff we spoke with confirmed they attended a range of learning opportunities. They told us they had regular supervisions with the manager, where they had the opportunity to discuss their care practice and identify further mandatory and vocational training needs.

We were unable to observe how the service administered medicines on the day of our inspection but we were able to establish how people managed them safely in their own home. We looked at how records were kept and spoke with the manager about how staff were trained to administer medicines and we found that the medicines administering process was safe.

During the inspection it was evident that the staff had a good rapport with the people who used the service and we were able to observe the positive interactions that took place. The staff were caring, positive, encouraging and attentive when communicating and supporting people in their own home with daily life tasks, care and support.

People were being encouraged to plan and participate in activities that were personalised and meaningful to them. For example, we saw staff spending time engaging with people on a one to one basis in activities and we observed and saw evidence of other activities such as art, drama and socialising. People were being supported regularly to play an active role in their local community both with support and independently.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that as far as possible people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible. Any DoLS applications must be made to the Court of Protection.

People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment when this is in their best interests and legally authorised under the MCA. We checked to see if the service had procedures in place and was working within the principles of the MCA. At the time of our inspection no applications had been made to the Court of Protection. From speaking to staff and looking at the training records we could see that training for staff was provided regarding MCA and DOLS.

We saw a complaints procedure was in place and this provided information on the action to take if someone wished to make a complaint and what they should expect to happen next. People also had access to advocacy services and safeguarding contact details if they needed it.

We found that the service had been regularly reviewed through a range of internal and external audits. We saw that action had been taken to improve the service or put right any issues found. We found people who used the service and their representatives were regularly asked for their views via an annual quality survey to collect feedback about the service.