Archived: Mencap - West Hampshire Domiciliary Care Agency

Mencap - West Hampshire is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to 33 people in their own homes at the time of the inspection. It provides a service to adults who have a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder and younger adults. 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.

Services for people with learning disabilities and or autism are supported

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Staff were trained to a good standard and could request additional training. Peoples care, and support plans were person centred and detailed.

We received mixed feedback about staffing levels from people’s relatives, however from our review of staffing arrangements we found overall there was enough staff to meet people’s needs.

People were supported by staff who were kind, compassionate and caring and who understood their likes, dislikes and preferences. People were happy being supported by Mencap and told us they felt safe. They were positive about the support they received to access health care professionals to maintain their health and wellbeing.

The provider and the registered manager had effective governance systems in place to identify concerns in the service and drive improvement.

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.

Most employment checks were in place and staff were recruited safely.. The registered manager was responsive to our feedback and took immediate action to make improvements where required.

The service applied the principles and values consistently of Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These ensure that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes that include control, choice and independence.

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 7 February 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Mencap West Hampshire Domiciliary Care Agency provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the agency was providing a service for 36 people with a variety of care needs, including people living with a learning disability or who have autism spectrum disorder. The agency was managed from a centrally located office base in Fareham.

The service had 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.

The registered manager oversaw the running of the full service and was supported by seven service managers who were allocated a geographical area to manage. Service managers were responsible for individual parts of the service, for example support to people in a supported living unit or support to people living in their own home.

People and their families told us they felt safe and secure when receiving care. Relevant recruitment checks were conducted before staff started working at Mencap West Hampshire Domiciliary Care Agency to make sure they were of good character and had the necessary skills.

Staff received training in safeguarding adults. They completed a wide range of training and felt it supported them in their job role. New staff completed an induction designed to ensure staff understood their new role before being permitted to work unsupervised. Staff told us they felt supported and received regular supervision and support to discuss areas of development. Staff meetings were held every month. There were sufficient numbers of staff to maintain the schedule of care visits to meet people’s needs.

The risks to people were minimized through risk assessments and staff were aware of how to keep people safe and the information provided staff with clear guidelines to follow. There were plans in place for foreseeable emergencies.

People who used the service felt they were treated with kindness and said their privacy and dignity was respected. People received their medicines safely. Staff had an understanding of legislation designed to protect people’s rights and were clear that people had the right to make their own choices.

Staff knew what was important to people and encouraged them to be as independent as possible. People were supported to lead full and varied lives and encouraged to make choices and had access to a wide range of activities.

Staff were responsive to people’s needs which were detailed in people’s care plans. Care plans provided comprehensive information which helped ensure people received personalised care. People felt listened to and a complaints procedure was in place.

Staff felt supported by the registered manager and could visit the office to discuss any concerns. There were systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service provided. Accidents and incidents were monitored, analysed and remedial actions identified to reduce the risk of reoccurrence.

We found that the service was very responsive to people's needs and that people were happy with the care they received. One person told us they were "happy with it all" and another said they "feel safe living here".

One relative told us they "give as much freedom as they think it's safe to have" and wanted to give special credit to the service manager for what they've done.

We found that staff were well supported with a thorough induction, ongoing training and support from service managers. One new member of staff said they were very impressed with the service as a whole.

We found that the service had improved in the areas that we asked for at our last inspection. For example, the care records were more detailed and personal to the individual and kept under regular review. Staff confirmed that there had been improvements and told us they thought people received good quality of care from a team that worked together to achieve this.