About the service: Radis Community Care (Meadow Green) is an extra care housing scheme which is registered to provide personal care, consisting of 53 one or two-bedroom flats. People who live at Meadow Green have their own tenancies. The service also includes Meadow Green Lodge, a separate building of 10 flats to deliver specialist support to people living with Dementia. The extra care scheme has on-site care staff 24 hours a day. The building comprises of an alarm service, lift, lounge, restaurant, garden, an activities room and hairdressing salon. The building is owned by Kirklees council and managed by Pinnacle Housing, who were responsible for the alarm call system, cleaning, maintaining and security of the building and grounds. At the time of our inspection 34 people were receiving support with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿ People told us they felt safe with staff from Radis Community Care (Meadow Green). Staff had a good understanding of how to safeguard adults from abuse.

¿ An electronic call monitoring system was in place, to alert office-based staff in the event a person’s care call had been missed or was very late. Oversight and follow up of incidents, such as very late care visits and medicines errors was not always evidenced.

¿ Staff were aware of their responsibilities if they were concerned a person was at risk of harm. Care files contained detailed individual risk assessments to reduce risks to people’s safety and welfare.

¿ People told us staff were usually on time and were not rushed. Some people told us they would prefer more consistency of care staff, although appreciated this was not always possible. The service was actively recruiting to staff vacancies within the team and agency staff were occasionally used. Staff recruitment was safe.

¿ A system was in place to ensure medicines were managed in a safe way for people. Staff were trained and supported to ensure they were competent to administer medicines. A sample of medicine administration records (MARs) were audited and most concerns had been addressed, although not all action taken was recorded.

¿ People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. We saw evidence people had given their consent to the care and support they were receiving. Some mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions were in place, however not all best interest discussions had been recorded. We made a recommendation about this.

¿ New staff were supported in their role, which included training and shadowing a more experienced staff member. We saw evidence staff had received regular on-going training in a variety of subjects. Staff received supervision and observations of their performance.

¿ People received support with meals and drinks if this was part of their care plan. Staff knew how to access relevant healthcare professionals if their input was required. The service worked in partnership with other organisations and healthcare professionals to improve people’s outcomes.

¿ People told us staff were caring and supported them in a way that maintained their dignity and privacy. People were supported to be as independent as possible throughout their daily lives.

¿ Individual needs were assessed and met through the development of detailed personalised care plans, which considered people’s equality and diversity needs and preferences.

¿ People told us they knew what to do if they had any concerns or complaints about the service and the manager had responded appropriately to resolve them. Some formal responses were not within the timescales set out in the registered providers policy. The provider agreed to address this.

¿ People told us they thought the service was well led. Some staff we spoke with told us communication and rota organisation could improve.

¿ The registered provider had a syst