Archived: Direct Health (Coventry)

Updated 18 May 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.

The inspection took place on 20 April 2015 and was announced. We told the provider we would be coming so they could ensure they would be in the office to speak with us and arrange for us to speak with care staff. The inspection was conducted 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.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. We looked at the information received from our ‘Share Your Experience’ web forms and the statutory notifications the service had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. We also reviewed the information in the provider’s information return (PIR). This is a form we asked the provider to send to us before we visited. The PIR asked the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they planned to make. They also sent a list of people who used the service so we could send surveys to people to ask them their views of the service.

Before the office visit we sent surveys questionnaires to people who used the service, their relatives and staff, we also contacted people who used the service by phone. We spoke with 20 people, (13 clients and seven relatives) and surveys were returned from nine people, three relatives and four staff. During our visit we spoke with two care workers, a care co-ordinator, the manager and a quality compliance manager. We also contacted the local authority contracts team and asked for their views; they had no concerns about the service.

We reviewed two people’s care plans and daily records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We looked at other records related to people’s care and how the service operated including, medication records, staff recruitment records, the service’s quality assurance audits and records of complaints.

Updated 18 May 2015

Direct Health (Coventry) is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care support to people in their own homes. At the time of our visit the agency supported 47 people.

We inspected Direct Health (Coventry) on 20 April 2015. We told the provider we were coming so they could arrange for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.

The service has 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 this inspection the registered manager was on maternity leave. Another manager had been appointed to cover in the registered manager’s absence, and was in the process of applying to register with us.

People and their relatives told us they felt safe with their care workers from Direct Health (Coventry). Care staff were trained in safeguarding people and understood how to protect people from abuse. Checks were carried out prior to staff starting work to ensure their suitability to work with people who used the service.

There were enough suitably trained staff to deliver safe and effective care to people. People told us staff had the right skills and experience to provide them with care and support. Management and staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), and supported people in line with these principles.

Care plans and risk assessments contained relevant information for staff to help them provide the personalised care people required. Most people said they were involved in their care and were asked for their views and opinions about the service they received.

Most people were happy with the service they received and said they had regular care workers. However some people said they would like more consistency in care workers. People told us they knew how to make a complaint if they needed to. Staff were confident they could raise any concerns or issues with the manager, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.

There were processes to monitor the quality of the service provided and understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through direct feedback from people, returned surveys and a programme of checks and audits.