AMG Nursing & Care Services

Updated 11 January 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector and one assistant inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to adults and children with a range of support needs, including people needing support at the end of their life.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 14 November 2019 and ended on 15 November 2019. We visited the office location on 14 November 2019.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority, commissioners and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with five people who used the service and three of their relatives. We met with the registered manager and operations director. We spoke with eight members of care staff. We spent time looking at written records, which included eight people’s care record, four staff personnel files and other records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 11 January 2020

About the service

AMG Nursing and Care Services is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care to adults and children with a range of support needs in their own homes. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting 76 people.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The registered provider had effective recruitment procedures in place to make sure staff had the required skills and were of suitable character and background. There were enough staff available to ensure people’s care and support needs were met in a timely way. Where people needed support with managing their medicines there were systems in place to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed.

Staff were provided with an effective induction and relevant training to make sure they had the right skills and knowledge for their role. Staff were supported in their jobs through ongoing training, regular supervisions and an annual appraisal.

Staff understood the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Positive and supportive relationships had been developed between people, their relatives and staff. People told us they were treated with dignity and respect, and their independence was promoted.

People, their relatives and staff were asked for their views of the service. They told us the registered manager and staff were approachable and responsive to any issues raised.

There were effective systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided. The service had policies and procedures which reflected current legislation and good practice guidance.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 3 March 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.