Archived: Mid Suffolk Home First

Updated 5 October 2018

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 took place on 20, 24 and 27 July and was announced. This was to ensure someone would be available at the office to speak with and show us records. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

We visited the service office on 20 July to speak with the registered manager, five staff providing support and to review care records, policies and procedures. On 24 July we visited the office again to look at further records and we visited three people who used the service in their own homes and one relative. On 27 July we spoke by telephone with a further two people who used the service and two relatives. We also spoke with six other professionals.

Before we visited the service we checked the information we held about the service including the inspection history, statutory notifications and complaints. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send to the Commission by law.

We used information the provider sent us in the Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

Updated 5 October 2018

This inspection took place on 20, 24 and 27 July 2018 and was announced. This was to ensure someone would be available at the office to speak with us and to show us records.

Mid Suffolk Home First is provided by Suffolk County Council. The service provides two distinct services. Reablement and, since our last inspection, they now provide a longer term care service to support people to meet their needs. The reablement service concentrated on supporting predominantly older people following a hospital admission with the aim of helping the person to their optimal level of independence. After six weeks of reablement support people are assessed to see if the person should stay with this service or progress to longer term support..

At the time of the inspection, the service was providing support to 55 people in their own homes including 12 people needing longer term personal care.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. Like 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.

Mid Suffolk Home First was last inspected by CQC in December 2015 and was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service had improved to Outstanding.

The service was very flexible and extremely responsive to people’s needs. We saw and heard from people using the service and their relatives how staff went above and beyond their role.

People’s care and support was planned proactively with them in a person-centred way. People’s preferences and choices were clearly documented in their care records and people told us they were involved in planning the care they received.

The service had used case studies to review the support people had received and identify good practice or lessons learned. There were consistently high levels of constructive engagement with staff and people who used the service.

Staff felt supported by the registered manager and said there was an “open door policy” at the service. Policies and procedures were in place to keep staff safe, and management and office staff provided outstanding support to care staff.

Governance was well embedded into the management of the service. Service quality and improvement was measured through a variety of audits, satisfaction questionnaires and performance indicators. There was a strong emphasis on continually striving to improve the service for the service users.

As well as continuing to develop the reablement service in a difficult situation, the service had taken over the provision of longer care to people in need of a service to meet their needs. As well as attentive management to ensure the service was delivered well an assessment of need had been carried out and additional training was provided to staff.

There were sufficient members of staff employed by the service and no call visits had been missed and staff were not late for appointments. Staff had time to travel safely between care visits and people informed us the always stayed for the length of time agreed.

The staff received supervision and training and on-going support.

Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. People spoke positively about how staff respected their privacy and dignity while carrying out the support they received to help them regain their independence as well as during personal care.

Risk assessments were in place for people who used the service and described potential risks and the safeguards in place to mitigate these risks.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and staff had been trained in safeguarding vulnerable adults.

Appropriate arrangements were in place to ensure the safe administration of medicines.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives, and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

There was a robust complaints process in operation.