Archived: Mears Homecare Limited (Birmingham) DCA

Mears Home Care is registered to provide personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service was providing support and personal care to 44 people.

There is a registered manager in place at this service. 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.

There were some areas where improvements could be made. Some people told us that the office staff did not always pass their messages on. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service but these had not always identified where improvement were needed.

People told us that they felt safe with staff and suitable recruitment procedures were in place.

Staff knew how to keep people safe from abuse and harm.

People were supported with their medicines and staff had been trained to do this.

Staff told us that they felt supported in their role. Staff received training and supervision to enable them to carry out their role effectively. There was an induction programme in place that supported staff to feel confident before working independently.

People told us that staff were kind and respected their privacy and dignity.

People were supported to have food and drink that met that needs.

People were supported to have their human rights upheld because they were able to consent and refuse care and support and were treated as individuals.

People knew how to raise concerns and complaints. Some people had needed to do this and were satisfied with how their concerns had been dealt with.

We carried out this inspection to find out if improvements had been made.

No one knew we would be inspecting. We visited the offices of Care UK Homecare Limited and we spoke with the registered manager and a senior staff member. We found that staff had received the support and training they needed to ensure that they managed people's medication safely. Systems were in place that protected people who used the service from the risks associated with the unsafe use and management of medication.

Most of the people we spoke with told us that they were happy with the service and that their needs were met in a safe and timely manner. One person told us, 'The girls are fantastic'. Another person said, 'What makes me really happy is I have the same staff'. A few people told us that the staff that came had been fine, but they did not always know which staff would be providing their care and this made people feel anxious.

All of the people we spoke with told us that they felt safe with the staff that had provided their care and they knew how to contact the office if they had any concerns. There were systems in place to recognise and report any abuse so people were protected from the risk of harm.

All the staff we spoke with told us that they had received the training they needed to meet people's needs. One staff member told us, 'Everything has been improved'. This meant staff were supported in their role.

We saw some systems were in place to monitor the quality of the service and we found that improvements had been made across all areas looked at so people benefitted from a well lead service.

We found that people's needs were not appropriately assessed and planned for which could affect the safety of the care people received. We found that risks to people's well being and safety had not been identified and planned for which meant people could be at risk of harm.

People told us that the staff were friendly and kind. One person said, "The staff I have are very good' and a relative said 'The staff ask my relative about how they want to be cared for, the staff are kind and respectful'.

We found that where people required support with their medication the system for offering this support did not ensure that people received their medication safely.

Staff had received some training to do the job however training on the specific needs of people had not always been completed.

Staff supervision and appraisals were inconsistent which meant staff were not getting the support they needed to do the job well.

There were systems in place to monitor quality but these had not been effective or timely.