Archived: Harrogate and Craven Crossroads

Updated 21 July 2017

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 registered provider was 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 23 May 2017. The inspection was announced. This meant the provider and staff knew we would be visiting because we needed to be sure that someone would be in the location’s office when we visited. The inspection was carried out by two adult social care inspectors and two experts 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. The expert by experience made telephone calls to people who used the service and their relatives to find out their views on the care and service they received.

Before our inspection, we looked at information we held about the service. We contacted the local authority’s adult safeguarding and commissioning teams to ask if they had any relevant information to share about the service. The provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the registered provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan our inspection.

As part of this inspection we spoke with three people who used the service and 13 people’s relatives. People’s relatives are referred to as carers throughout this report. This is because the aim of the service is to provide carers with a break from their caring role.

We spoke with the registered manager, care coordinator and four members of staff. We looked at seven people’s care records, three staff recruitment and training records, meeting minutes, medication administration records, audits and a selection of records relating to the running of the service.

Updated 21 July 2017

Harrogate and Craven Crossroads is a service registered to provide personal care to adults and children living in their own homes to enable carers to have a break from their caring role. People’s needs ranged from those living with dementia, learning disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorder and people with complex health issues.

We inspected this service on 23 May 2017. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice of our inspection because we needed to be sure that someone would be in the location’s office when we visited. At the time of our inspection there were 58 people using the service. At the last inspection, the service was rated ‘Good’. At this inspection, we found the service remained ‘Good’.

People who used the service felt safe with the care that staff provided. People were protected from the risk of abuse by staff trained to identify and respond to safeguarding concerns. The provider had robust procedures to ensure effective recruitment of staff. There were sufficient staff employed to meet people’s needs.

People were supported to communicate their needs, make choices and this meant they had maximum control of their lives. Where people were unable to make their own decisions, the provider needed to ensure they recorded decisions made in people’s best interests in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Care plans and risk assessments were used to provide guidance to staff on how to safely meet people’s needs. Care plans were person centred. They contained details of how people preferred their support to be delivered.

People told us they had regular staff that supported them. This enabled people to develop positive caring relationships with the staff that visited them. This also enabled staff to get to know people and how best to meet their needs. This had led to staff supporting people’s interests, hobbies and social networks in innovative ways. People told us this had increased their feeling of wellbeing and prevented social isolation for some people.

Systems were in place to support staff to safely administer medicines. We made a recommendation that the provider implement all good practice guidance regarding medicines management.

Staff received training, on-going supervisions and appraisals to enable them to perform their role. The provider checked staff performance through observing their practice in people’s homes.

People provided very positive feedback about the kind, caring and motivated staff that supported them. Staff supported people to maintain their privacy, independence and dignity.

There was a system in place to gather and respond to feedback about the service provided which included an annual survey and complaints procedure. People and their carers were positive about the service they received and they told us it was well led.

The manager had systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Although they communicated with the provider regularly, the provider did not check that the work the manager completed ensured a safe and quality service. We made a recommendation that the provider review arrangements to ensure a robust quality assurance system was in place.