Archived: Voyage (DCA) Wakefield

Updated 25 June 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team was made up of two inspectors.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and two supported living settings so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. 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 service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission at the time of this inspection.

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 26 May 2022 and ended on 30 May 2022. We visited the location’s office on 26 May 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 27 April 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We sought feedback from the local authority commissioners and safeguarding team, and from Healthwatch, Wakefield. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person and two of their relatives about their experience of the care provided. We met with the registered manager and care coordinator. We spoke with five care workers.

We looked at written records, which included three people’s care records and three staff files. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed. This included reviewing the provider’s policies and procedures, and the outcomes of satisfaction surveys.

Updated 25 June 2022

About the service

Voyage (DCA) Wakefield is a domiciliary care agency supporting five people with a learning disability and/or autism with personal care at the time of the inspection. People lived in supported living accommodation and in the community.

Not everyone who used the service received 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 and what we found

There were systems in place to recognise and respond to any allegations of abuse. Staff had received training and understood what it meant to protect people from abuse. Safe recruitment procedures made sure staff were of suitable character and background. There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s care and support needs in a timely way. There were effective systems in place to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed.

Staff were provided with an effective induction and relevant training to make sure they had the right skills and knowledge for their role. Staff were supported in their jobs through regular supervision and team meetings. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Care records provided person-centred information to enable staff to meet people’s needs and preferences.

The service was well-led. Comments about the registered manager and care coordinator were positive. The service had up to date policies and procedures which reflected current legislation and good practice guidance. There were effective systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture. We found people using the service received planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that was appropriate and inclusive for them.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 30 October 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We had concerns in relation to staff conduct and management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from the concerns. The overall rating for the service has remained as good.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Voyage DCA Wakefield on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.