Archived: Allied Healthcare Warrington

Updated 1 August 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 checked 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 inspection of Allied Healthcare Warrington took place on the 26 and 27 June 2018 and was ¿announced. In line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies this inspection was announced two days prior to our visit to ensure the registered manager or other responsible person would be available to assist with the inspection.

The inspection team consisted of two adult social care inspectors. One inspector telephoned people who used the service and their relatives to gain their views and opinions about the service being provided.

Before the inspection, we reviewed the information we held on the service. This included checking if we had received any ¿notifications. A notification is information about important events such as accidents or incidents, which the ¿provider is required to send to us by law. We also invited the local authority and stakeholders to provide us with any information they held about Allied Healthcare Warrington. 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. ¿

At the time of this inspection the registered manager confirmed 84 people were receiving support from Allied Healthcare Warrington. We used a number of different methods to help us understand the experiences of people who used the service. We spoke with the registered manager, the operations support manager, one field care supervisor, two care coordinators, five support staff, seven customers and two relatives speaking on behalf of their family members. This gave us a wide insight into ¿their views across all areas of the service.

We also reviewed a range of records about each person's support and how the service was managed. These included, support records for four people to see if their records were accurate and reflected their ¿needs. We reviewed four staff recruitment files, staff duty rotas, staff training and ¿supervision records, minutes of meetings, staffing rotas, complaint and safeguarding records and records in relation to the management of the service.

Updated 1 August 2018

This was an announced inspection which took place on 26 and 27th June 2018. The registered provider was given 48 hours' notice of the inspection, to ensure that the registered manager or other responsible person would be available to assist with the inspection visit as well as giving notice to people who used the service that we would like to speak with them. This was the first comprehensive rated inspection of the service following their move of office and registration with the Care Quality Commission 06/07/2016.

Allied Healthcare Warrington is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for personal care and treatment, disease, disorder and injury to people in their own homes in the community. The service is located in Warrington centre close to local amenities and to local transport links. At the time of the inspection the service supported 84 people in their own homes.

The service had 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.

We received positive comments from people receiving support and their relatives acting on behalf of their family members. People were happy with the staff and everyone was positive about the standards of care received where they felt the staff were well mannered and respectful to them.

Staff were aware of their responsibilities in keeping people safe and had received training in safeguarding adults. Staff responsible for supporting people with their medicines had ¿received training to ensure they had the competency and skills required.

There were sufficient staff to complete the scheduled visits for each person. People being supported relatives told us staff generally arrived on time. The service had a monitoring system that continually checked the promptness of their visits and could take action, if staff were running late for any reason.

Staff were recruited following a safe and robust process to make sure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people.

Staff were given appropriate support through a programme of training and on-going supervision, and appraisal. Staff were positive about the training provided to them which gave them the skills and knowledge they needed to do their job. People told us they felt safe and trusted the staff.

Peoples' support plans contained up to date, detailed information about their care and support, including risk assessments and action plans. Staff were knowledgeable about the needs of the people they supported.

The complaints procedure was explained in the 'welcome pack.' This was provided to people when they first choose the service for their care package. No complaints were raised at the time of inspection, everyone we spoke with told us they had no complaints.

The registered provider and registered manager used a variety of methods to assess and monitor the quality of the service. They carried out a lot of checks to all aspects of the service to make sure that each part of the service was operating appropriately. Visits to people, telephone reviews, customer surveys and observational checks were carried out by the registered provider to ensure that the standards of care were maintained and support was a good standard at all times.