Archived: Allied Healthcare Telford

The inspection of this service took place on 12 and 13 January 2017 and was announced.

There was a registered manager in post and they were present at the time of the inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, registered managers 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 received a service that was safe and staff were confident they could protect the people they supported from harm. Risks in relation to providing safe support were assessed, documented and well managed.

There were sufficient staff to meet people’s assessed needs at times that had been agreed. Staff could offer flexible and responsive support to meet people’s changing needs in order to ensure their on-going safety and wellbeing. There were effective systems in place to ensure that people received the support they required. Staff were recruited through safe recruitment practices meaning that only people suitable to work in the role were appointed.

People who required support to take their medicines were protected by safe systems for administering, storing and recording medicines. People were supported by staff who had received training and were competency checked to ensure the safe administration of medicines.

People were supported by staff who had the knowledge and skills to provide effective support. Staff received good training opportunities and training was developed to ensure staff were skilled to meet people’s individual health and personal care needs.

Staff had a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities and worked well as a team to ensure people’s needs were met. Effective communication meant that information was shared appropriately to ensure people’s needs were known. People were supported in ways that they preferred because staff were aware of people’s individual needs and preferences.

People’s rights were protected as the provider was appropriately applying the principles of the under the Mental Capacity Act. People were supported by staff to make choices in relation to the care and support they received.

Staff worked with healthcare professionals to promote and maintain people’s good health. Staff monitored people’s wellbeing and offered flexible support to enable people to enjoy a varied and nutritious diet that met their individual dietary needs.

People were supported by staff who were caring, kind and compassionate. People got to know the staff who supported them and this consistency meant they received good care and support. People were supported to remain as independent as they were able whist receiving support and care. People told us that staff treated them with dignity and respect. Staff respected people as individuals and respected their chosen lifestyles.

People received a responsive service. They received the care and support they required. They told us that any changes were communicated and staff were flexible if people wished to reschedule their calls. Overall care plans reflected peoples support needs and were updated as needs changed.

People told us they were satisfied with the service that they received and felt consulted with in how their care and support was delivered. People, and their relatives had opportunities to give feedback on the service and feedback received was positive. The provider had a system to appropriately manage complaints. People were confident that, should they need to make a complaint, they would be listened to and their concerns would be acted upon. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service provided. The registered manager learned from incidents, accidents and complaints and made changes to improve the service if possible as a result.

The registered manager had been in post two weeks when we carried out this inspection. They had taken over from an interim manager from another Allied Health Care branch. People who used the service and staff reported that since these managers had been in post, things had generally improved at the branch.

People told us that staff treated them with respect and always ensured their dignity was maintained. People also told us that they felt that the support they received from the service met their needs. Comments included, "The girls are all very very good'. 'They are like my family; they do all that I ask of them'. 'They are all very kind people'.

People told us they had a copy of their care plan in their home. We looked at care records of people who used the service and found that people experienced care, and support that met their needs and protected their rights. People told us that their care workers arrived on time and stayed the allotted time and did not miss visits to them.

There were proper measures in place for the protection of children and vulnerable adults.

The provider sought people's views periodically and completed assessments of risks to assess and monitor the quality of service provision.

People told us that they had mixed opinions about the service. Several people expressed concerns about how the agency had been run lately. They said communication between the office, people using the service and carers could be better. People told us they had experienced missed and delayed calls due to lack of organisation of the care visits they needed. People told us, "The care cannot be faulted; it is the office staff that needs to get their act together ". People told us they were very happy with the regular carers who looked after them. Relatives asked us to convey their appreciation to the management of the service. One person said, "I have had no problems with my carers. They deserved a lot of praise."

We saw that improvements were required in systems for assessing and monitoring the quality of service the service provided, so they could demonstrate how they had learned from the feedback they received. We saw the service had not improved their practices, including their care planning and equipment management systems in the way they told us they would. This had been part of the reason in people telling us the service was not as good as it used to be.