Archived: Radis Community Care (Gloucester)

After the comprehensive inspection, the provider wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to the breach. We undertook a focused inspection on the 21 March 2017 to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to this topic. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for ‘Radis Community Care (Gloucester)’ on our website at www.cqc.org.uk’.

Radis Community Care (Gloucester) is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care and support to people of all ages with physical needs as well as people who have learning disabilities, mental health problems and sensory impairments. The service provides care and support to people who live in their own homes. The level and amount of support people need is determined by their own personal needs. We only inspected parts of the service which supported people with the regulated activity of personal care. At the time of our inspection there were approximately 120 people receiving support with their personal care. The service had recently taken on services from another care provider shortly before the inspection, and was welcoming and supporting a number of new clients and staff into the service.

The service did not have a registered manager. There was an acting manager in place and recruitment was underway for a new manager. The acting manager was being supported by a regional manager to maintain the day to day management of the service. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At our focused inspection on the 21 March 2017, we found that the provider had followed their plan and the legal requirements had been met.

People and their relatives were now receiving the information they needed regarding their care. The manager was able to demonstrate how this was provided to people and relatives in a format and manner they wanted. The manager and regional manager had developed systems to monitor the quality of the service. At the time of our inspection, the manager and regional manager were undertaking a considerable amount of work and support to welcome and support a number of new clients and staff to the service.

We last inspected in June 2013. At the June 2013 inspection we found that the provider was meeting all of the requirements of the regulations at that time.

At our inspection on 23 June 2016, there wasn't a registered manager in post. The previous registered manager had left the service in January 2016. An acting branch manager was in position and they were in the process of applying to be registered with the care quality commission. 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.

People did not always have the information they needed and wanted regarding their care. People and their relatives told us they did not always know which staff were coming to provide their care and when.

People received safe and effective care which enabled them to live in their own homes. People and their relatives praised the care staff and spoke positively about the care they received. The care people received was personalised to their needs. People and their relatives felt involved in their care and spoke positively about the relationships they had with staff.

People told us they felt listened to and could not fault the care they received. People were cared for by care staff who were supported by the manager and provider. Staff had access to professional development through the provider. The manager and provider knew the needs of staff and had systems to ensure staff had access to the training and support they needed. All staff told us the manager and provider was supportive.

The manager and provider had systems to monitor the quality of service people received. The systems enabled the manager and provider to identify concerns and drive improvements the actions they had taken to improve the service had not always been recorded. The manager did not always use the information provided to them about staff call times to identify any trends or concerns.

We found one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.

People told us:' that staff are very friendly" and that "I can't fault them". However, people told us that ' there had been too many changes in staff'. There was on-going recruitment process to ensure that there were sufficient skilled and experienced staff to safely meet the needs of people who used the service, and to enable the agency to accept new referrals. The content of induction and subsequent training for staff followed national guidance and allowed new staff to become familiar with the care and support needs of people using the service.

The quality assurance monitoring systems, used to safeguard people using the service and to seek their views of the quality of care they received were not sufficient to monitor the quality of service that people receive. Staff recruitment procedures were also incomplete and had not safeguarded people using the service.