About the service:

Lifecarers West Oxfordshire are a domiciliary care agency (DCA). The service provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of our inspection the service supported 24 people.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they received safe care. People were supported by consistent and suitably trained staff. People received support to take their medicines safely and as prescribed. Risks to people’s well-being and environmental safety were recorded and updated when the circumstances changed. The lessons were learnt where appropriate to improve the service further.

People’s rights to make their own decisions were respected. People were supported to access health services if needed. People’s dietary needs were assessed and where required people were supported with their meals.

People received caring and compassionate support from the staff. The management team led by example and staff referred to people in a caring way. People were complimentary about staff and about positive, caring relationships they were able to form with the staff. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity and people were supported to be as independent as possible.

People received support that met their needs and the service remained flexible to people’s needs. People knew how to complain and told us where they raised concerns the management acted promptly to address these. No people received end of life support at the time of our inspection.

The service was managed by the new registered manager who had a clear vision on the quality they wanted to provide. There was a clear staffing structure and staff were aware of their roles and responsibilities. The senior team had a number of quality assurance systems in place and there was a focus on further development. The service worked well with other partners, organisations and commissioners.

More information is in Detailed Findings below.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (report published 7 July 2016).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will monitor all intelligence received about the service to inform the assessment of the risk profile of the service and to ensure the next planned inspection is scheduled accordingly.

We inspected Lifecarers Witney at Bright Yellow Group on 31 May 2016. This was an announced visit. Lifecarers Witney at Bright Yellow Group is a service which provides care and support to people who live in their own homes. At the time of our visit 25 people were using the service.

There wasn’t a registered manager in post at the service. 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.

A new manager had been appointed and they were in the process of submitting their application to become a registered manager with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service.

People felt safe and staff supported them well to enable them to remain in their own homes. Staff were aware how to safeguard people and protect them from harm and risk of abuse. Staff had a good understanding of their responsibilities to report a potential abuse.

Individual risks to people had been assessed and managed to make sure people were kept as safe as possible. Accidents and incidents were recorded and appropriate action was taken to maintain people’s safety and reduce the risk of reoccurrence. People told us they received their medicines as prescribed and the medicines records viewed confirmed this. People were supported with nutritional needs when required. People were encouraged to maintain good health and staff supported people to access health care services.

Staffing levels were sufficient to ensure people's needs were met. The recruitment process ensured that staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people. Staff received training appropriate to their roles and knew people's individual needs. Staff were well supported and received one to one meetings with their line manager.

The staff were knowledgeable about and followed the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The manager was aware of principles of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). This protected the rights of people who may not be able to make certain decisions themselves. People told us their consent to care was sought by staff.

People and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring and their privacy and dignity was respected. People benefitted from positive relationships established with staff. People told us staff were compassionate and demonstrated affection and warmth in their approach. People were involved in their care and told us staff responded well to their changing needs.

People’s needs were assessed prior to commencement of the service to ensure the staff were able to meet their needs. People’s care records were current and contained details of people’s personal preferences, likes, dislikes and medical information.

People had opportunities to provide feedback about the service. Feedback was listened to carefully and responded to by the manager to improve the quality of the service. People told us they knew how to raise concerns but they did not need to.

The leadership provided by the manager meant staff felt valued and supported to provide quality care. Staff were positive about the team work at the service and told us they enjoyed working at the service.

The manager had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and ensured they acted on feedback where required. The manager planned to further improve and develop the service and demonstrated they were keen to improve on any recommendations. Provider’s head office that provided support to the local offices was in a process of undergoing a restructure and their quality team were working on updating the policies and procedures.