About the service:• The service’s office is based in the Slough central business district. Care is provided in the surrounding areas.
• The service provides personal care to adults with complex needs, some of whom have dementia.
• This is the only location that the provider operates.
• At the time of our inspection, six people used the service and there were 14 staff.
People’s experience of using this service:
• The provider had made some improvements to the service since our last inspection.
• Staff received better training, induction, supervision and support so they could effectively perform their roles.
• The service had assessed people’s care risks in a more detailed way and had better plans in place to mitigate the risks.
• There were safer recruitment practices in place to ensure that only fit and proper staff were employed to provide care or support the service.
• Relatives told us the staff were kind, friendly and dedicated. They said staff knew people’s needs well.
• Governance of the service requires improvement. Insufficient checks and audits are carried out to determine the quality of the care. The provider had failed to act on some areas already identified for improvement.
• The provider sought professional assistance to achieve compliance with the regulations. The provider had delayed seeking this support and as such, has neither implemented nor sustained all the necessary changes to ensure a good service.
• A competent staff member who can satisfactorily lead the service and ensure safe care with good governance must register as the manager with us. This is a condition of the provider’s registration.
• The service met the characteristics for a rating of “good” in all the key questions we inspected, except for well-led. The rating for well-led remained at “requires improvement”. The overall rating for the service remained at “requires improvement” because of a continued breach of a regulation.
• More information is in our full report.
Rating at last inspection:
• At our last inspection, the service was rated “requires improvement”. Our last report was published on 8 September 2018.
Why we inspected:
• All services rated “requires improvement” are re-inspected within one year of our prior inspection.
• This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.
Follow-up:
• The service will be required to submit an action plan to us setting out how they will achieve a rating of at least "good".
• We will assess the current application for the manager to register with us and make a decision.
• We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates.