Archived: Action for Children

Action for Children Camden provides a short breaks service to children and young people with physical and/or learning disabilities who are living in their family homes. The service provides personal care and support to participate in activities at home and within the local community. At the time of our inspection the service had been providing support to three children.

People’s experience of using this service:

Care and support was person centred. Children’s care plans and risk assessments included guidance for staff members about their care and support needs and preferences. They had been reviewed regularly and updated where there were any changes in needs.

Staff had received training about safeguarding and knew how to respond to any allegation or suspicion of harm or abuse.

The service ensured that recruitment of new staff members included checks in relation to their suitability, such as references and criminal records checks. Staff had received training to ensure that they were able to meet the needs of the children they supported. Staff received regular supervision sessions with the registered manager to ensure that they were able to carry out their roles.

Care plans were in place for the children and young people supported by the service. These included guidance for staff on how to provide care and support in accordance with their preferences. Individual risk assessments included information on how to manage and reduce identified risks.

Children and their relatives were involved in decisions about their care. They were able to approve their support workers before they were assigned to them.

Regular surveys of views of the service had taken place. These showed high levels of satisfaction.

Processes were in place to manage and respond to complaints and concerns.

The provider undertook a range of audits to check the quality of care provided. These were reviewed by the management team and actions had been taken to address any concerns.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

The service was rated Good (Report published 20 April 2017).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on our rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to inspect as part of our re-inspection programme.

Action for Children provides short breaks for children with disabilities including autism. This includes activities with children in their home and within the community and personal care such as help with washing and dressing. At the time there were seven children using the service who received personal care.

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.

Procedures and policies relating to safeguarding people from harm were in place and accessible to staff. All staff had completed training in safeguarding children and demonstrated an understanding of types of abuse to look out for and how to raise safeguarding concerns.

Detailed current risk assessments were in place for all people using the service. Risk assessments explained the signs to look for when assessing the situation and the least restrictive ways of mitigating the risk based on the individual needs of the person.

There was a comprehensive staff induction for new employees and on-going training programme. Staff had regular monthly supervisions and annual appraisals. Staff were safely recruited with necessary pre-employment checks carried out.

Care plans were person centred and updated regularly. Care plans contained details of the child’s likes and dislikes, favourite pastimes and cultural and religious information.

Children were supported to be independent by attending regular activities and daytrips and relatives told us this had a positive impact on the child and their family life.

The service was registered to support children and young people under the age of 18. At the time of the inspection they were not supporting people over the age of 16 years, therefore the legal requirement to consider people’s mental capacity and ability to make decisions was not required.

The service had not received any complaints since it registered. There was a complaints procedure in place and relatives were confident that they could complain, if needed.

There were quality assurance measures in place to monitor quality of care provided and relatives had regular opportunities to provide feedback.