Archived: KIDS (South Gloucestershire)

Updated 11 September 2019

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

One inspector completed this inspection.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides support to children and young people living in their family homes. At the time of the inspection there were seven children receiving the regulated activity of personal care.

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 28 August and ended on 2 September 2019. We visited the office location on both of these dates.

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. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We looked at records, which included four children/young people’s care and medicines records. We checked recruitment, training and supervision records. We looked at a range of records about how the service was managed. We also spoke with the registered manager, the service manager, a care coordinator responsible for short breaks and a senior practitioner.

We telephoned three parents, a young person using the service, four sessional workers that supported the children and a senior practitioner. The purpose of the telephone calls was to seek their views of using or working for the service.

Updated 11 September 2019

About the service: KIDS (South Gloucestershire) provides a short breaks service to children and young people with physical and/or learning disabilities 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 was providing support to 43 children and their families. However, only seven children/young people needed support with 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:

Parents told us they were very happy with the support in place and trusted the staff to support their child safely. Comments included, “It is an absolutely brilliant service” and, “My son looks forward to the sessions and going out”.

Children, young people and their parents were consulted about what they wanted and needed in respect of the support from KIDS (South Gloucestershire). Each child/young person’s support was tailored to their needs and aspirations. Care plans were unique to each individual. Hours of support was agreed with commissioners of the service. There was some shortfall in hours, but this was closely monitored by the service and the commissioners. This was because the service wanted to get the right staff to support the child or young person. Recruitment was ongoing to ensure there were suitable numbers of sessional workers to provide support to existing and new children and young people.

Before sessional workers supported children and young people they went through a thorough recruitment process and induction. There was ongoing training and support for sessional workers. Some sessional workers had other employment during the day and worked and supported the children after school, during the holidays and at weekends. The team had a wealth of experience including nursery staff, teachers, and health and social care professionals.

Staff were knowledgeable about the children they supported and spoke about them really fondly. It was evident the sessional workers had built positive relationships with not only the child but other members of the family. There was good partnership working involving the child, their families and health and social care professionals.

The service was well led and had clear leadership with supportive networks for the staff, the child/young person and their families. Systems were in place to check the quality of the services, which included seeking the views of the young people, parents, and health and social care professionals. Staff were passionate about supporting the child or young person and their family.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 09 February 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

We will continue to review information we receive about the service until we return to visit as part of our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

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