About the service: Lauriem Complete Care Limited – Ditton is registered as a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people in their own homes in the community. They provide services to any people who need care and support. The agency provides care services to people living in Kent. There were 290 people receiving support to meet their personal care needs on the days we inspected.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ Some people told us the organisation went the extra mile to respond to their needs and the needs of their loved ones.

¿ An occupational therapist told us that the care staff often went above and beyond their role to promote positive outcomes for people.

¿ The staff were led by a management team that showed a commitment to continuous improvement and development of the service people received.

¿ Feedback was actively sought and used to improve the quality of the service people received.

¿ People received an individualised service that responded to the needs of people and their loved ones.

¿ People were provided with consistency and continuity of care; with staff that knew them well.

¿ People felt safe with the staff and confident that any concerns they raised would be dealt with appropriately.

¿ Potential risks posed to people and others had been assessed and mitigated.

¿ The management team used identified shortfalls to learn lessons and make improvements. The recording system for supporting people with their medicines had been improved.

¿ People received their medicines safely from staff that were trained and competency assessed.

¿ Staff were supported in their role and received continuous training and development to meet people’s needs.

¿ People’s consent was actively sought prior to any care or support tasks.

¿ Staff were kind, caring and patient with people. Information about people’s personal histories, likes and dislikes had been recorded within their care records.

¿ Staff worked jointly with health care professionals to promote people’s health and nutrition.

¿ Regular audits were used to monitor and improve the quality of the service people received.

The agency continued to meet the characteristics of Good.

Rating at last inspection: Good (Report published 27 September 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Good.

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

The inspection took place on 19 and 21 July 2016. The inspection was announced.

Lauriem Complete Care Limited – Ditton is registered as a domiciliary care agency, providing personal care to people in their own homes in the community. They provide services to any people who need care and support. The agency provides care services mainly to people living in the West and North Kent areas. There were approximately 155 people receiving support to meet their personal care needs on the days we inspected.

There were two registered managers based at the service, one of whom was the provider. 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.

People felt safe when receiving care from Lauriem Complete Care Limited staff and they knew who to talk to if this changed. Staff had a good knowledge of how to safeguard vulnerable adults from abuse. Staff had described instances where they had raised concerns in the past and these had been acted upon. They understood their responsibility to report concerns and where to go to outside of the organisation should the need arise.

Risks to individual people and their circumstances had been identified, with actions put in place to reduce the risk and maintain people’s safety. People’s home environment, internal and external, had been checked for hazards before support commenced, helping to keep people and staff safe. Most people did not need help to take their medicines, however some people did. As well as attending training courses, regular competency checks were carried out on staff to ensure their continued capability to safely administer medicines to people. The provider had identified where some staff were not recording to the expected standards when administering peoples medicines. They had put actions in place to rectify this in order to continue to provide a safe service.

The provider had robust recruitment processes in place to make sure new staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people in their own homes. Enough staff were available to be able to run an effective service, responsive to people’s needs. People told us that staff always stayed to support them for the time they were allocated. Staff had suitable training at induction when they were new as well as regular updates. Additional training was available to make sure staff were skilled and confident to cater for specialist needs, such as to support people living with dementia. Staff had ‘spot checks’ to make sure their practice continued to be safe and of good quality.

Although most people looked after their own healthcare needs or had a family member who helped with this, staff supported people who needed assistance when requiring health care appointments or advice.

People told us they made their own decisions and choices and staff were clear that people were in control of their care and support. Mental capacity assessments had been undertaken where appropriate following the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People’s families were often involved if their loved ones needed support to make decisions and this was clearly recorded.

A caring approach was shown by staff, people made many positive comments about the staff who supported them. Most people had regular staff providing their care and support who had got to know them well, creating a confidence and trust. People were give a service user guide at the commencement of their care and support with the information they would need about the service they could expect.

A care supervisor undertook an initial assessment of people’s personal care needs so the registered manager could be sure they had the resources available to support people. People had a care plan that detailed all the