Archived: Grays Quality Home Care Limited

Updated 11 August 2015

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 provider is 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 was carried out by an inspector and an inspection manager and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of our inspection because the location provides a service to a small number of people and we needed to be sure there would be someone in the office. Prior to the inspection we looked at information we held about the service and used this information as part of our inspection planning. The information included notifications. Notifications are information on important events that the provider is required by law to notify us about.

We spent time in the agency’s office, with the manager and the provider. We visited three people who used the service at their homes where we also met two of their relatives. We spoke with one person on the telephone and we spoke with two members of staff. We looked at records held by the service, including two people’s care plans, medication records, staff recruitment files, the service user guide and some of the audits carried out by the manager.

Updated 11 August 2015

Grays Quality Home Care is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care for people living in their own homes. There were 19 people using the service at the time of our inspection. The service covers Cambourne, the surrounding villages and a small area of Cambridge.

This announced inspection was carried out on 10 and 24 June 2015.

Our last inspection took place on 06 June 2014. As a result of our findings we asked the provider to make improvements to care planning, supporting people to make decisions, the delivery of care, medicines management, staff checks, training and supervision and the quality assurance systems. We received an action plan detailing how and when the required improvements would be made. During our inspection in June 2015 we found that the necessary improvements had been made.

This service requires a registered manager. 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. The provider had appointed a manager who told us she was in the process of submitting an application to the Commission to be registered.

People and their relatives were very complimentary about all aspects of the service provided by Grays Quality Home Care Limited. Staff commented on the improvements that had taken place in recent months.

The service was safe because there was a sufficient number of staff to meet people’s needs. Satisfactory checks on new staff had been done before they were employed and staff had been trained to recognise and report abuse. Any potential risks to people were assessed and managed so that the risks were reduced. People were given their medicines safely.

The CQC monitors the operation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), which apply to care services. People’s capacity to make decisions for themselves had been assessed. This meant that the rights of people not able to make their own decisions about aspects of their care were protected.

People were supported to eat and drink a sufficient amount and to make choices about the care they received. Staff supported people, when required, to access healthcare professionals so that their health was maintained.

People liked the staff and staff showed they cared about the people they were looking after. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity and encouraged people to maintain their independence. People were involved in the planning of their care.

Care plans gave staff detailed information about each person, their history, their likes and dislikes and the care they wanted. People were supported in the way they preferred, including support with activities if they wanted it.

The service was managed well. People, their relatives and the staff were encouraged to give their views about the service and put forward their ideas for improvements. People knew how to complain and felt comfortable with raising any issues with the manager. An effective system was in place to monitor and audit the quality of the service being provided.