Archived: Carefirst IW Limited

We saw people's care needs had been assessed and care plans were in place in the office and in people's homes. People's care needs were reviewed regularly. All of the people we spoke with said they had a care folder in their home and confirmed staff used it. People told us they liked the care staff and had a good relationship with them.

Staff had received training in the safeguarding of vulnerable adults and all the people we spoke with said they felt safe with care staff. One person said 'they've changed my life for the better". The service had a policy for safeguarding vulnerable adults and staff we spoke with were familiar with this.

A system was in place to ensure there were enough staff to care for people's needs and that the service was not over-stretched. People we spoke with said staff always let them know if they were running late, which was not often. The majority of staff training was provided by an in-house trainer. Records showed a range of training was undertaken and staff were up to date with their training.

Quality assurance procedures were in place, including an annual questionnaire sent to all people using the service and their relatives. All the people we spoke with told us they felt any complaint would be dealt with effectively.

We also telephoned staff and were able to speak with two of them. They confirmed that their recruitment had been appropriately undertaken and that a range of checks were completed before they commenced work. They told us about training and the completion of 'shadowing' shifts to enable them to put office based training into practise. Staff were aware of people's rights to refuse care and the actions they would take if people did not want care as planned.

We spoke with a social care professional who was positive about the agency. Whilst in the office we looked at care plans, records of care provided and recruitment records. These were all well maintained and contained all relevant required information.