11 April 2016
During a routine inspection
There was a registered manager in post. 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. Staff had a good knowledge of current safeguarding practice and how to apply this knowledge to their role of supporting people in the service. Risks to people had been identified and minimised wherever possible. We saw that there were sufficient staff available to meet people’s requests for support. People were able to state when they wanted to receive support from staff who understood the need to work flexibly.
People were supported to make choices and where they may lack the capacity to make specific decisions appropriate support was given. We saw that medicines were managed safely. Staff had access to information about the specific support people needed with their medicines.
People told us they felt cared for. Care was planned with each person and people were able to state what support they wanted. The service had supported people to be as independent as possible in all aspects of their lives. When necessary specialist equipment was sourced and used to support
the person to live independently whilst still remaining safe. People had been supported with planning their meals.
Staff felt valued and supported in their role and had the opportunity to feedback or make contributions to the service. Staff told us they had sufficient training to carry out their role effectively.
People and their relatives were aware of how to raise concerns or make complaints. We saw that where complaints had been received appropriate action had been taken to resolve the complaint.
There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service which included seeking feedback from the people who used the service. People who used the service were encouraged to the part of the organisation through board meeting, recruitment or their internal magazine.
The provider and registered manager had plans to improve the quality of the service to make it more effective for the people accessing support and for the staff team.