Archived: Custom Care (Stoke)

Updated 25 May 2017

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 announced inspection took place on 19 and 20 April 2017. The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

As part of the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service, including notifications. A notification is information about events that by law the registered persons should tell us about. We asked for feedback from the commissioners of people's care to find out their views on the quality of the service. We also contacted the Local Authority for information they held about the service. We used this information to help us plan our inspection.

During the inspection, we spoke with seven people who use the service and five relatives. We also spoke with the registered manager, the regional manager, the regional director, three care coordinators and six care staff.

We reviewed a range of records, which included the care records of six people. We looked at three staff files, which included pre-employment checks and training records. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service including call monitoring records, complaint logs, accident reports, meeting notes, monthly audits, and medicine administration records.

Updated 25 May 2017

This inspection took place on 19 and 20 April 2017 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides domiciliary care services; we needed to be sure that someone would be in. Custom Care (Stoke) provides personal care for people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were 124 people using the service.

A registered manager was 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.

We carried out a comprehensive inspection on 22 September 2016 and we found the provider was not meeting some of the regulations and the service was placed in special measures. At this inspection we checked to see if the provider was meeting the regulations and we found the provider had taken action to make all the improvements required.

People had confidence in the service and felt safe and secure when receiving support. People told us staff were prompt with attending calls and staff said they did not feel as though they had to rush people with their care. People had risks to their health assessed and staff were knowledgeable about how to minimise the risks. People received support to take their prescribed medicines and staff understood how to administer these safely.

Staff were trained to carry out their role and had the skills to support people effectively. People told us they were supported to maintain a healthy diet and could access health professionals with support from staff as required. We could see 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 support this practice.

People were supported by a staff group that were kind and caring and people told us they had developed good relationships with staff. We found people were supported to make choices about their care and support and were enabled to maintain and maximise their independence. People told us their privacy and dignity was protected by staff supporting them.

People received responsive care and support and were involved in their assessment and care planning. Staff took time to get to know people and they were aware of people’s interests. People understood how to make a complaint and they told us they felt complaints would be responded to effectively.

People, relatives and staff all told us they felt the service was open and inclusive. We found the management team were supportive and accessible to people and staff. We found there were systems in place which supported good communication and helped to manage the service effectively. There were quality checks undertaken and these were used to drive continuous improvement.