Archived: Allied Healthcare Wembley

At our previous inspection of Allied Healthcare Wembley in February 2016 we found that the service was not meeting the requirements of the law in relation to the assessment and management of risk for people who used the service and the supervision of staff members. During this inspection we found that improvements had been made in order to meet the requirements identified at the previous inspection.

Allied Healthcare Wembley is a domiciliary care agency that provides a range of care support to adults living in their own homes. People who used the service had a range of support needs including physical and sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental health needs and conditions associated with ageing, such as dementia. In addition to providing personal care, the service also assisted people with domestic tasks, such as shopping, housework and meal preparation. At the time of our inspection the service provided support to 170 people who predominantly lived in the London Boroughs of Ealing and Brent.

A registered manager was in place. 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.

People told us that they felt safe when receiving care. Staff members understood how to safeguard the people whom they supported. There were appropriate numbers of staff employed to ensure that people’s needs were met and that there was continuity of care in the case of staff absence. The provider had carried out checks to ensure that staff members were of good character and suitable for the work that they were engaged in.

Arrangements were in place to ensure that risks associated with the provision of care and support were assessed and managed. Risk assessments and management plans had been reviewed regularly and updated where there had been changes in people’s care needs.

Some people's medicines were administered by staff members and we saw that this was recorded. the service's monitoring procedures had identified an issue in relation to the clarity of one record. One record did not include information about codes used to indicate where medicines had not been administered and this was addressed immediately.

Staff received regular training that covered a wide range of topics and met national training standards for staff working in health and social care services. They were able to describe the training that they had received and tell us about how it helped them to support the people with whom they worked.

Training and information had been provided to staff about The Mental Capacity Act (2005), including the Deprivation of Liberties Safeguards. Information about people’s capacity to consent was contained within their care plans, and staff were able to describe how they supported people to make decisions and choices about their care.

Arrangements were in place to ensure that staff were provided with regular supervision by a manager. The records showed that regular supervisions had taken place and this was confirmed by the staff members that we spoke with.

Care plans were in place detailing how people wished to be supported, and people were involved in making decisions about their care. People told us that they valued the support that they received from their care staff. Staff members spoke positively about their work and the people whom they supported.

People told us that they knew how to contact the office and were confident that the provider would deal with complaints appropriately and quickly. Regular monitoring of people’s views of the service had taken place and we noted that this showed high levels of satisfaction with the service.

People and staff members told us they were satisfied with the management of the service. There were effective processes in place to monitor the care and welfare of people and improve the quality of the service. Changes were being made as a result of these, such as training to improve the quality of report writing and recording, and the introduction of new streamlined care plans.

The service worked in partnership with other health and social care providers to achieve positive outcomes for people.

Allied Healthcare Wembley is a domiciliary care agency that provides a range of care support to adults living in their own homes. People who used the service had a range of support needs including physical and sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental health needs and conditions associated with ageing, such as dementia. In addition to providing personal care, the service also assisted people with domestic tasks, such as shopping, housework and meal preparation. At the time of our inspection the service provided support to 300 people who predominantly lived in the London Boroughs of Ealing and Brent.

The service had re-registered with CQC during September 2014 due to a change of address. This was the first inspection of the service under this registration.

A registered manager was in place. 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.

People told us that they felt safe when receiving care. Staff members understood how to safeguard the people whom they supported. There were appropriate numbers of staff employed to ensure that people’s needs were met and that there was continuity of care in the case of staff absence. The provider had carried out checks to ensure that staff members were of good character and suitable for the work that they were engaged in.

Arrangements were in place to ensure that risks associated with the provision of care and support were assessed and managed. However, some of the risk assessments that we saw had not been reviewed for over a year. This meant that staff might not always be able to protect people from the risk of harm.

Staff received regular training that covered a wide range of topics and met national training standards for staff working in health and social care services. They were able to describe the training that they had received and tell us about how it helped them to support the people with whom they worked. Training and information had been provided to staff about The Mental Capacity Act (2005), including the Deprivation of Liberties Safeguards. Information about people’s capacity to consent was contained within their care plans.

Arrangements were in place to ensure that staff were provided with regular supervision by a manager. However some staff members had not been supervised for at least six months, even though the provider’s policy showed that these should take place on a three monthly cycle. This meant that that the provider was not following its own policy on supervision and could not always be sure that staff maintained their competencies in the roles in which they were working.

Care plans were in place detailing how people wished to be supported, and people were involved in making decisions about their care. People told us that they thought that staff who worked with them were professional, caring and respectful. Staff members spoke positively about the work that they did and the people whom they supported.

People told us that they knew how to contact the office and were confident that the provider would deal with complaints appropriately and quickly. People also said that they had received questionnaires or visits from a manager to obtain feedback about the service that they received. We saw that people’s feedback about the service showed high levels of satisfaction with the care and support that they received.

There were effective processes in place to monitor the care and welfare of people and improve the quality of the service. We saw that the service had made positive changes in relation to information that they had obtained from these processes.

We found two breaches of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.