Background to this inspection
Updated
27 November 2020
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team
This inspection was completed by one inspector.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses, flats and specialist housing.
This service provides care and support to people living in nine ‘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.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 27/10/20 and ended on 30/10/20. We visited the office location and one of the supported living sites on 29/10/20.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service.
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We visited the service’s registered office and then visited a supported living site where several people who used the service lived.
We met and spoke with four people who used the service. We spoke with five members of staff including the operations manager, registered manager, site manager and three care workers.
We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.
After the inspection
We spoke with two relatives about their experience of the care provided and one member of staff by telephone
We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We spoke with two professionals who regularly visit the service.
Updated
27 November 2020
About the service
Voyage (DCA) Staffordshire is a care at home service providing personal care to 26 adults at the time of the inspection. The service supported people with mental and physical health needs and learning disabilities in their own homes (some which were supported living sites) across Staffordshire.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were applying the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. The service was able to demonstrate how people’s independence and rights were promoted in a way that allowed them to take risks when considering their safety. The ethos of the service supported staff to have the values, attitudes and behaviours that would ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.
People were seen to be comfortable and relaxed in the presence of staff and were supported by knowledgeable staff who knew their needs and preferences. We saw there were warm and friendly interactions between staff and people and they were seen to be supported in a safe, but not restrictive way.
Staff were knowledgeable as to what to do if they had any concerns in respect of abuse and how to report this. People had comprehensive risk assessments in place which gave clear guidance for staff, and they were aware of this guidance. People received their medicines as prescribed by trained staff. There were enough safely recruited staff to ensure people were able to access daily living opportunities of their choice in their homes or community safely. This meant people were supported in a safe way.
The provider and registered manager regularly reviewed the quality of the service and was able to show us improvements that they had made following incidents, this to ensure the safety of the service was improved.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection - The last rating for this service was good (published 07 August 2019).
Why we inspected - The inspection was prompted in part by notification of a specific incident. Following which a person using the service died. This incident is subject to investigation by other agencies. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident. Dependent on the findings of other agencies CQC may review the circumstances of the incident under a separate specific incident process.
The information CQC received about the incident indicated concerns about the management of people’s health conditions where there was potential for these to present a serious risk. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only, this to identify that people who currently used the service were safe.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well led sections of this full report.
The overall rating for the service has remained the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Voyage (DCA) Staffordshire on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up - We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.