Radis Community Care (Ditchburn Place)

Radis Community Care (Ditchburn Place) is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people living at Ditchburn Place. Ditchburn Place is an extra care housing service. Staff provided personal care and support to 24 people at the time of the inspection. Ditchburn Place had 51 flats and was situated in the centre of Cambridge.

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

Staff knew the people they supported well. There were enough suitably trained and knowledgeable staff to help support people in a timely manner. People and their relatives told us there had not been any missed care visits.

Staff had medicines administration spot checks undertaken to review their competencies following their training. Staff had supervisions and appraisals. New staff to the service had to complete an induction that included shadowing a more experienced staff member. Potential new staff to the service had checks carried out on them to help make sure they were suitable to work with the people they supported.

People and their relatives told us the support from staff made them and their family member feel safe. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of how to keep people safe from harm or abuse. They also knew that they should report any concerns they may have to their line manager or to the local authority.

Staff had given people the opportunity to discuss their end of life wishes should they choose to do so, and these wishes were documented. Staff would work with external health professionals to try to make sure people have as dignified a death as possible.

Staff had access to information in people’s care plans and risk assessments that helped guide them to care and support people safely and effectively. Staff supported people to take their prescribed medicines safely. Infection control practices in line with government guidance were in place to reduce the risk of cross contamination. Lessons were learnt and shared with staff when things went wrong.

The care service was not responsible for people’s food and drink. Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, activities and meetings took place in the communal areas of Ditchburn Place should people choose to attend. As COVID-19 restrictions were reducing, residents’ meetings were to be scheduled and people were re-establishing links with the local community. Staff helped promote people’s privacy and dignity and encouraged people to be involved in decisions around their care. People felt listened to and their choices were respected.

The registered manager and staff worked with external health and social care professionals. This would help people to receive joined up care and support. Complaints about the service had been investigated, responded to and resolved where possible. People, and their relatives were asked to complete surveys to feedback on the service provided. Staff could enable people to have information in different formats such as large print or pictorial formats to help them access information.

The registered manager sent staff any guidance and legislation updates. This helped support the staff team to work with the most up to date guidance. Staff meetings were held to update staff on people’s care needs and provide updates on guidance and the organisation. Audits were undertaken to monitor the quality of the service.

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.

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 the service under the previous provider was good, published on 3 March 2020.

Why we inspected

This is the first inspection since the new provider registered with the CQC on 23 April 2020.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.