Archived: Housing & Care 21 - Cannock

The service did not have a registered manager. 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. The provider had recruited a manager and they were in the process of registering with us.

When people were not able to make decisions about their care, the provider had not assessed this and was not able to show why receiving support was in their best interests. People’s support was being arranged from a location that was not registered with us, and the provider had not formally notified us about this.

People were safe receiving support from staff who visited them. Staff understood how to protect people from harm and abuse. Risks to people were managed and staff knew how to support people safely. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and the provider had safe recruitment processes in place. When people needed support with their medicines, this was managed safely.

People were supported by staff who had the knowledge and skills needed to carry out their roles. When needed, people received support to maintain a balanced diet and good health.

People received support from staff who were caring and kind. Staff knew people well and understood their needs. People’s privacy was respected and their dignity and independence was promoted.

People were involved with the planning of their support, their care needs were reviewed and the provider responded to any changing needs. People were happy to raise any concerns or complaints, and the provider acted on feedback received.

People were happy with the support they received and staff enjoyed their work. Staff were supported in their roles and the provider promoted a positive open culture. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of care, and the provider was keen to drive continuous improvement.

We found breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.

We found that the service had grown extensively since last inspection. At last inspection this service had 77 people who used its' services. The service now offered care and support to 140 people. The manager told us that the increase had occurred within the last few months.

Staff told us how they maintained people's privacy and dignity. This was corroborated by the people we spoke with. One person we spoke with told us: 'They encourage me to keep covered up' and 'I always feel they do their best to maintain my dignity'.

The agency had a system in place to identify people's likes and dislikes. The system also recorded people's preference of time of support visit. The manager told us that this system removes the guess work from how many care hours a required to meet people's needs.

The service had developed links with other agencies in order to provide essential care in the event of any business contingency or adverse event.

Staff were well supported with the right skills to care for the people who used the service. A clear process to ensure that enough staff were always available was both available and audited every week.

The service audited at both branch and company level. Quality monitoring processes were people focused and effective.

The told us which systems they had changed, and showed us an action plan of the work they have carried out this year.

We saw that the agency was in the process of updating its care plans, and had changed some procedures.

We spoke with four people that used the service and a family member. We spoke with five members of staff.

People who used the service told us, "The girls are smashing", and "I could not wish for better care". Family members told us, "We had started the process to cancel care with housing 21; the changes were explained to us when the management changed. We were impressed with the positivity, now the changes have been made it's a massive improvement. We stopped our cancellation".

We found care plans were personal and told us what care the person needed, and how care was to be given. We saw daily record sheets, and that staff recorded and signed for what they had done.

People who used the services were protected from the risk of abuse, because the provider had taken reasonable steps to identify the possibility of abuse and prevent abuse from happening.

We found that complaints and concerns were effectively monitored and responded to.

We found that the agency had effective monitoring systems to ensure the quality of service, and ongoing improvement.