Short Term Support and Rehabilitation Team Also known as STS&RT

Updated 8 January 2019

The inspection:

• We carried out our inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. Our inspection checked whether the provider was 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.

Inspection team:

• Our inspection was completed by two inspectors and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Our expert-by-experience had knowledge about personal care of adults within the community.

Service and service type:

• This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to younger and older adults and people with dementia.

• The service is required to have a registered manager. 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. At the time of our inspection, a manager was registered with us.

Notice of inspection:

• Our inspection was announced.

• We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because staff were often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

• Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public, local authorities and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). We checked records held by Companies House and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

• We asked the service to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

• We spoke with 11 people who used the service and a relative.

• We spoke with the provider's head of regulated services, the quality lead, registered manager, assistant manager, care coordinator, three care workers, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist.

• We reviewed seven people’s care records, six staff personnel files, audits and other records about the management of the service.

• We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection. This was received and the information was used as part of our inspection.

Updated 8 January 2019

About the service:

• The service’s office is based in the Maidenhead town hall. Care is provided in the surrounding areas.

• The service provides personal care to adults who are recovering from hospital admissions, receiving rehabilitation or need short term personal care until alternative care arrangements are made.

• The service is operated by a trading body of a local authority. They work in partnership with another local authority to provide personal care to people in the local community.

• At the time of our inspection, 25 people used the service and there were 46 staff.

People’s experience of using this service:

• The provider had made good improvements to the service since our last inspection on 7 November and 8 November 2017.

• Staff received better training, induction, supervision and support so they could effectively perform their roles.

• The registered manager had resolved issues surrounding the recording, investigation and analysis of incidents and accidents.

• Governance of the service had improved. Sufficient better checks and audits were carried out to determine the quality of the care. The provider had promptly acted on some areas already identified for improvement.

• People and relatives told us the staff were kind, friendly and dedicated. They said staff knew people’s needs well.

• The provider used their staff, leaders and management team to achieve compliance with the regulations. The provider had provided the necessary support to enable satisfactory organisational change.

• The service met the characteristics for a rating of “good” in all the key questions we inspected. Therefore, our overall rating for the service after this inspection was “good”.

• More information is in our full report.

Rating at last inspection:

• At our last inspection, the service was rated “requires improvement”. Our last report was published on 21 December 2017.

Why we inspected:

• All services rated “requires improvement” are re-inspected within one year of our prior inspection.

• This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.

Follow up:

• We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates.