Background to this inspection
Updated
19 October 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 reviewed information received about the service, for example the statutory notifications the service had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law. The service does not have a contract to provide care to people funded by the local authority. All the people who used the service either funded their own care or received direct payments so they could decide which agency to use. One person was funded by the health authority.
The office visit took place on 29 September 2016 and was announced. The provider was given three days’ notice of our inspection visit so they could ensure they would be available and arrange for us to speak with care workers. The inspection was conducted by one inspector and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using, or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Before the office visit we spoke with seven people who used the service and four relatives by telephone. We sent email surveys to eleven staff, from which we received one response. We also contacted four health and social care professionals who used the service; feedback was received from three professionals. We used this information to help make a judgement about the service.
During our visit we spoke with four care workers, the assistant manager and the registered manager, who was also the provider for the service. We reviewed three people’s care plans to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We checked whether staff had been recruited safely and were trained to deliver the care and support people required. We looked at other records related to people’s care and how the service operated including the service’s quality assurance audits and records of complaints.
Updated
19 October 2016
A & L Enablement Service is registered as a domiciliary care service which provides personal care support to people in their own homes. At the time of our visit the agency supported 17 people with personal care and employed 17 care workers.
We visited the offices of A & L Enablement on 29 September 2016. We told the provider before the visit we were coming so they could arrange for staff to be available to talk with us about the service.
This service was last inspected in June 2014 when we found the provider was compliant with the essential standards described in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.
The service has 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 registered manager was also the provider of the service
People felt safe with the staff that provided their care and care workers understood how to protect people from abuse and keep people safe. There were processes to minimise risks to people’s safety, these included procedures to manage identified risks with people’s care and for managing people’s medicines safely. Care workers were properly checked during recruitment to make sure they were suitable to work with people who used the service.
The managers understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), and care workers respected people’s decisions and gained people’s consent before they provided personal care.
There were enough care workers to deliver the care and support people required. People said care workers arrived around the time expected and stayed long enough to complete the care people required. People told us care workers were kind and knew how people liked to receive their care.
Care workers received an induction when they started working for the service and completed regular training to support them in meeting people’s needs effectively. People told us they were supported by care workers who they knew and who had the right skills to provide the care and support they required. Care plans and risk assessments contained relevant information for staff to help them provide the care people required.
People knew how to complain and information about making a complaint was available for people. Care workers said they could raise any concerns or issues with the managers, knowing they would be listened to and acted on.
Staff felt supported to do their work and people felt able to contact the office and management at any time. There were systems to monitor and review the quality of service people received and understand the experiences of people who used the service. This was through regular communication with people and staff, returned surveys, spot checks on care workers and a programme of other checks and audits.