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Archived: START South

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Chedworth House, Chedworth Close, Northampton, NN3 5HW (01604) 362003

Provided and run by:
Northamptonshire County Council

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile
Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 8 May 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is 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:

The inspection team consisted of one inspector 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.

Service and service type;

Start South is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Everyone using start south received the regulated activity; the Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also take into account any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, 43 people were receiving 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. The registered manager had left the service the previous week. The area manager was currently covering the role. We will refer to this person as the manager within this report.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is a domiciliary care agency service and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. Inspection site visit activity started on 9 April 2019 and ended on 15 April 2019. We visited the office location on 9 April 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We also visited people in their own homes. We made calls to people, their relatives and staff on 10 and 15 April 2019.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service. This included statutory notifications that the provider had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We sought feedback from the local authority and other professionals who work with the service. We used information the provider sent us in the 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

During our inspection we spoke with seven members of staff including the manager, seven people using the service, and eight relatives.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people's care records, four staff files around staff recruitment and supervision and the training records for all staff. We also reviewed records relating to the management of the service and a variety of policies and procedures developed and implemented by the provider.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 8 May 2019

About the service:

START South (Short Term Assessment and Reablement Team) service provides care and support for people who need immediate support to live independently in their own home; this may be as a result of a crisis or illness, or following a discharge from hospital. They provide short term support for people to regain independence or identify if people require a permanent care provider to meet their longer term care needs. In addition, this service also supports the HICT (Holistic Intermediate Care Team) service which supports people with dementia, and require an input from a team of professionals including Occupational Therapists and Admiral Nurses (specialist dementia nurses). At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 43 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ People and relatives told us they felt safe and that staff were kind and caring. We heard comments such as, “Very nice, lovely, absolutely fabulous and friendly.” However, staff and people told us that their care wasn’t always consistent regarding changes with staff attending calls.

¿ Staff completed all relevant training for their roles, however some staff had not completed refresher training. This meant that some staff may not be trained with the most up to date information. The manager agreed to ensure all staff required were booked on refresher training.

¿ People’s safety was promoted. Staff had received training in safeguarding and knew how to protect them from abuse.

¿ Potential risks to people was continuously assessed, managed and regularly reviewed. Care plans provided staff with clear guidance to support the person safely.

¿ People were placed at the centre of their support and were consulted about their care.

¿ Respect for privacy and dignity was adhered to by staff. People and staff felt respected and listened to.

¿ People received personalised care and support specific to their needs and preferences. Every person was respected as an individual, with their own social and cultural diversity, values and beliefs. People had their human rights upheld.

¿ Staff gained people’s consent before providing personal care and support.

¿ People were supported to access appropriate healthcare when required.

¿ People knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint. There was a system in place to respond to complaints and advocacy support was available.

¿ People received their medicines correctly and were supported to self-administer when possible.

¿ Quality audits were completed to ensure consistent good quality care.

This service met the characteristics of Good in all areas. More information is available in the 'Detailed Findings' below.

Rating at last inspection:

This was the first inspection of the service since their registration on 19 April 2018 with the Care Quality Commission.

Why we inspected:

This inspection was a planned inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per 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