Archived: Weymouth Office

Updated 7 April 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 announced inspection took place on the 22 and 26 February 2018. The inspection team was made up of one inspector.

Before the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service. This included notifications the service had sent us and information received from other parties. The provider had submitted a Provider Information Return (PIR). 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.

During our inspection we visited and spoke with three people with staff in their homes and spoke with another person and member of staff at the office. We also spoke with two relatives. We spoke with five members of staff, the registered manager, two managers from the provider organisation involved with the running of the service and a social care professional who had worked with the service. We also looked at six people’s care records, and reviewed records relating to the running of the service. This included five staff records, quality monitoring audits and accident and incident records.

Updated 7 April 2018

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats and specialist housing. Not everyone using Weymouth Office receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. When we visited the service there were 26 adults with learning disabilities and/or mental health needs receiving ‘personal care’.

At our last inspection we rated the service Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of Good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

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At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

People were supported by staff who understood the risks they faced and how to support them to reduce these. Staff understood how to identify and report abuse and were confident in their role as advocates for people when this was appropriate. Staff supported people to take medicines safely.

People were supported by skilled and caring staff who worked to ensure they lived their life the way they chose. Communication styles and methods were considered and staff supported people to understand the choices available to them.

This meant 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.

People, relatives and professionals told us they could raise any concerns and these were addressed appropriately.

The service had been through a period of sustained uncertainty due to changes in commissioning. This had not impacted the support and care people received. Quality assurance systems involved people and led to a safer and better quality service.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.