Rainbow Trust Children's Charity 5

Updated 8 March 2019

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 provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 15 and 25 January 2019. The provider was given 24 hours’ notice because the location provides a domiciliary care service and we needed to be sure that staff would be available to speak with us.

The inspection team consisted of one inspector and one 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 this inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give us some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We also checked other information we held about the service including previous inspection reports and notifications. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

During the inspection we spoke with nine parents whose children were receiving care and support by telephone. We spoke with the registered manager and two family support staff members. We looked at care records for three children and recruitment records for three family support staff. We looked at other records in relation to the management of the service such as health and safety records, minutes of staff meetings and quality assurance records.

Following the inspection, we gathered feedback from two health and social care professionals.

Updated 8 March 2019

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity 5 provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. The Trust provides support to children who have life threatening or terminal illness. The charity provides support in family homes and the wider community. The regulated activity is personal care but this is provided only when needed and as part of a wider service. For example, changing a baby’s nappy whilst taking them out, or showering them after swimming. At the time of our inspection, the agency was providing a service for 34 children under the age of 18.

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 extremely positive and consistent feedback about the service from children and their families. Parents felt the service went above and beyond and staff were extremely experienced at looking after people needs. Children and their families received care that was based around their individual needs and that was personalised.

Parents felt their children were safe with the charity. Risks to children were minimized through appropriate risk management. There were plans in place for foreseeable emergencies. Parents supported their children with medicines so staff were not involved in this.

Relevant recruitment checks were conducted before staff started working at the service to make sure they were of good character and had the necessary skills. Staff had received training in safeguarding children and knew how to identify, prevent and report abuse.

The service was extremely responsive to children’s and their family’s needs. Staff asked parents how they could support them and this ranged from taking the child out who was unwell, taking the child’s siblings out, to supporting the whole family in the home. Parents we spoke with felt able to complain although they had not had cause to. The service had a complaints procedure in place but had not received any complaints. They had received compliments and letters of thanks.

The service had introduced new initiatives to support children and their families by having sibling’s days at local theme parks, and arranging support sessions at local hospitals and running support groups.

Staff completed a wide range of training and felt it supported them in their job role. New staff completed an induction before being permitted to work unsupervised. Staff told us they felt supported and received regular supervision to discuss areas of development. Staff meetings were held regularly. There were sufficient numbers of staff to maintain the schedule of care visits to meet people’s needs.

The registered manager promoted a positive culture that was open, inclusive and empowering. Staff felt supported by the registered manager and were able to give their views on the service as well as suggest any improvements.

All the parents we spoke with told us they were cared for with kindness, compassion and sensitivity. Care plans provided comprehensive information about how families wished to receive care and support. This helped ensure people received personalised care in a way that met their individual needs.

National surveys allowed children and their parents to provide feedback which was used to improve the service. They were encouraged to be involved in developing the service and were asked their views and opinions regularly.