Start Service - Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe Locality

Updated 26 January 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team: The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type: Start Service - Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe Locality provides a short term reablement service. Reablement services support people in their own homes. This service is usually delivered following people’s discharge from hospital. People normally do not use this service for longer than a six-week period.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. The registered manager was present during the inspection.

Notice of inspection: The provider was given 48 hours’ notice as we needed to be sure the registered manager and staff would be available to speak with us.

What we did when preparing for and carrying out this inspection: We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included checking incidents the provider must notify us about, such as serious injuries and abuse. We sought feedback from the local authority, Healthwatch and professionals who work with the service. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually which gives us key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also sent out questionnaires to 50 people who used the service as well as their relatives and asked them about the quality of the service provided. We sent 37 questionnaires to staff and asked them for their views. In total we received 29 responses, 19 from people who used the service, three from relatives and seven from staff. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection, we spoke with five people who used the service. We spoke with; a support coordinator, three reablement support workers, a reablement manager, a senior practitioner, occupational therapist and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people's support records and three staff files. We also viewed training and supervision records and records relating to the safety and management of the service.

Updated 26 January 2019

What life is like for people using this service:

People were protected from harm, neglect and avoidable harm. Risks to people’s safety were discussed with them and acted on by staff. There were sufficient numbers of qualified and experienced staff to support people. Where people needed support with their medicines, staff did so safely. Staff understood how to reduce the risk of the spread of infection. The provider ensured processes were in place to act on and learn from any accidents or incidents.

People were supported in accordance with current best practice guidelines and legislation. Staff were well trained and had the skills needed to support people. Where people needed support with their meals, staff did so effectively to help maintain or improve people’s nutritional health. The service worked in partnership with other health professionals to ensure people received the support they needed. 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 support this practice.

People found the staff to be kind, caring and they were treated with dignity and respect. People were involved with decisions about their support needs. Staff spoke respectfully about the people they supported and helped to maintain people’s privacy. People had access to advocates if they needed them.

People were provided with support in accordance with their personal preferences. Staff took swift action to ensure people’s changing needs could be met. No formal complaints had been received since our last inspection, but processes were in place that enabled these to be responded to appropriately. End of life care was not provided.

The service was managed well by the registered manager with support from provider. There was a clear focus on continued improvement and development and people and staff were involved with this process. Staff felt valued and enjoyed their role. Robust quality assurance processes were in place to help identify good practice and areas for improvement.

Rating at last inspection: Good (report published 11 May 2016)

About the service: Start Service – Broxtowe, Gedling & Rushcliffe Locality provides a short term reablement service. Reablement services support people in their own homes. This service is usually delivered following people’s discharge from hospital. People normally do not use this service for longer than a six-week period. On the day of our inspection there were 54 people using the service.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The service remained rated Good overall.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.