Updated 10 April 2019
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, 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 was carried out by one adult social care inspector.
Service and service type:
Special Needs Care is a domiciliary care agency providing support predominantly to people with learning disabilities living in their own home or within supported living schemes. The service provides support to people mainly in the Chester, Ellesmere Port and surrounding areas in Cheshire. There were approximately 80 people being supported with their personal care by the service during our visit.
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.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because 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 28th February 2019 and ended on 6 March 2019. We visited the office location on 28 February and 5 March 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. We visited people who used the service in their own homes, with their permission on the 6 March 2019.
What we did:
Our plan took into account information the provider sent us since the last inspection. We also considered information about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we looked at issues raised in complaints and how the service responded to them. We obtained information from the local authority commissioners and safeguarding team and other professionals who work with the service. We assessed the 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 the inspection, we spoke with nine people who used the service. The nature of the disability of some people was such that it was not always possible to gain direct views about their experiences of the support provided. In those instances, we used observations of their interactions with the staff team and the non-verbal communication they relayed in order to assess how comfortable they were with the staff team. Other people were able to give direct accounts of their experiences.
We also spoke with the registered manager, registered provider, quality assurance manager, three senior managers and eight members of staff. We looked at eight people's care records and a selection of medication and medication administration (MARs). We looked at other records including quality monitoring records, five recruitment files and a training matrix for all staff.