Lincolnshire Quality Care is a domiciliary care agency that supports people to live in their own homes. The agency provides home care services within North East Lincolnshire to people who may be living with dementia, a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder, a physical disability, sensory impairment or mental health needs. At the time of inspection, it was providing support to approximately 98 people over the age of 18. People using the service lived in their own homes in the community.Not everyone who used the service received personal care. Care Quality Commission 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 received care and support at a time and duration that met their needs. There were enough staff with appropriate skills to safely support each person. One person told us, "I do get different [Care] staff but they all know me. I know I can trust them to arrive, every day."
Care and support was tailored to people's need as most staff knew people well. There were some shortfalls within care records to identify people's assessed needs. We made a recommendation about updating people's risk assessments to reflect people's care plans on the new electronic care planning system.
Medicine systems were in place, however there was no 'as and when required' (PRN) medicine guidance to support staff with administration. We made a recommendation to implement PRN protocols to support staff with decision making when 'as and when required' medicines were needed.
Staff members had been recruited safely and the provider had robust recruitment processes and policies.
Staff received safeguarding training and had a good understanding of the principals involved in acting when abuse was suspected.
People's needs were met through assessments and support planning. The service worked with relatives, health and social care professionals to achieve positive outcomes for people. Staff and management had good knowledge and skills; this ensured people's needs were met.
Processes to assess and check the quality and safety of the service were completed. The registered manager and operations manager carried out audits and quality monitoring reports. These identified areas of the service that required improvement and these actions were carried out.
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 statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right support:
Model of care and setting maximises people's choice, control and independence
Right care:
Care is person-centred and promotes people's dignity, privacy and human rights
Right culture:
The ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives
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 19 June 2018).
Why we inspected
This was a planned focused inspection. This report only covers our findings in relation to the review of the key questions Safe and Well-led only.
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. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. 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 Lincolnshire Quality Care 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 reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.