Archived: Abicare Services Newbury

Updated 28 August 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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.

This inspection took place on 21 July 2015 and was announced. We gave the area manager 48 hours' notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to make sure someone would be in the office. We were assisted on the day of our inspection by the service's area manager and community team manager.

The inspection was carried out by 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.

Prior to the inspection we looked at all the information we had collected about the service. This included the previous inspection report and any notifications the service had sent us. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law.

As part of the inspection we spoke with eight people who use the service and three of their relatives. We spoke with the area manager, the community team manager and five of the 17 care staff. We received feedback from one local health professional. We contacted a local authority care manager and a health care professional but had not received feedback by the time of writing this report.

We looked at four people's care plans, five staff recruitment files and staff training information. We saw a number of documents relating to the management of the service. These included: the staff training matrix, staff supervision and appraisal log, quality assurance survey results from 2014 and the staff handbook.

Updated 28 August 2015

This inspection took place on 21 July 2015 and was announced. We gave the area manager 48 hours' notice as we needed to make sure someone would be in the office.

Abicare Services Newbury provides a service to people living in their own homes in Berkshire. At the time of this inspection they were providing a service to 31 people.

The service is required to have a registered manager. The registered manager has not managed the service since March 2015. The community team manager has been managing in her place, with the support of the area manager. The company is currently recruiting a new manager. The area manager has started the process to become registered with us in the interim. 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 were protected from risks to their health and wellbeing and were protected from the risk of abuse. Staff received training to enable them to do their jobs safely and to a good standard.

People were treated with respect and their privacy and dignity was promoted. Staff were caring and responsive to the needs of the people they supported. Staff sought people's consent before working with them and encouraged and supported their independence.

People's health and well-being was assessed and measures put in place to ensure people's needs were met in an individualised way. Medicines were managed well and staff administering medicines were only allowed to do so after passing their training and being assessed as competent. Where included in their care package, people were supported to eat and drink enough.

People benefitted from receiving a service from staff who worked well together and felt management worked with them as a team.

People were not always provided with a service that was consistently delivered within the time slots agreed.

We have made a recommendation about the service exploring the reasons for late calls.