Archived: Carewatch (Newark)

Updated 10 August 2016

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.

We visited the service on the 25 and 31 May 2016, this was an announced inspection. We gave 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because the service provides care in the community and we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available. The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also reviewed information we held about the service. This included information received and statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

We contacted the commissioners of the service, health and social care professionals who had contact with the service to obtain their views about the quality of the care provided by the service.

During our inspection we spoke with ten people who used the service, five relatives, two members of care staff, one field support worker, one care coordinator, the registered manager and the provider’s representative. We looked at the care plans of five people who used the service and any associated daily records, such as the daily log and medicine administration records. We looked at four staff files, as well as a range of records relating to the running of the service, such as quality audits and training records.

Updated 10 August 2016

We carried out an unannounced inspection of the service on 25 and 31 May 2016. Carewatch (Newark) is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care and support to people in their own home. At the time of the inspection there were101 number of people using the service.

There was a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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 felt safe and were supported by staff who knew how to keep them safe and understood their responsibilities to protect people from the risk of abuse. Risks to people’s health and safety were managed and plans were in place to identify and reduce the risk to people’s safety. There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people’s care needs and staff were recruited safely. People received the level of support they required to safely manage their medicines.

People were supported by staff who received appropriate induction, training, supervision and appraisal. Staff were fully supported by management. People’s rights were protected under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People received the assistance they required to have enough to eat and drink. External professionals were involved in people’s care as appropriate.

People were treated with kindness and compassion and spoke highly of the staff. People reported positive and caring relationships had been developed between themselves and the staff. People felt able to contribute to decisions about their care and were involved in the planning and reviewing of their care and how they wanted their care delivered. People were treated with dignity and respect by staff who understood the importance of this.

People’s care and support was planned and arranged and they were actively involved in making decisions about their care and support. Care plans provided sufficient information for staff to provide personalised care. A complaints process was in place, and people felt able to make a complaint. People felt confident that staff would respond in a timely manner.

People felt empowered to contribute to the development of the service. The registered manager actively sought people’s views and acted on them. There were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided. The service was led by a registered manager who had a clear understanding of their role and how to improve the lives of all of the people at the service. They had a robust auditing process in place that identified the risks to people and the service as a whole and they were dealt with quickly and effectively.