About the service :

Excalibur Serviced Offices is is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. is Excalibur Serviced Offices a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of this inspection visit, three people received personal care.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion.

People’s experience of using this service:

¿People were safe using the service because staff understood how to protect people from abuse and harm. There were procedures to keep people safe and manage identified risks to people’s care .

¿People received support from staff who had the knowledge and skills to provide safe, effective care. Staff felt they had access to relevant training and were supervised and supported in their roles.

¿Staff encouraged people to follow a healthy diet. People made their own decisions or were given support to do so in their best interests.

¿Staff promoted people’s privacy, dignity and diversity and had caring positive relationships with the people they supported.

¿Relatives and staff were happy with how the service was managed. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and any risks or incidents.

¿Staff felt supported in their roles. felt they were fully supported by the registered manager and were included in any developments of the service .

More information is in the Detailed Findings below.

Rating at last inspection:

Requires Improvement (report published 8 December 2017).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection which was requires improvement. We found the provider had made improvements since the last inspection and the overall rating is now Good.

Follow up :

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

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

This inspection took place on 29 September 2017 and was announced. We gave the registered manager 48 hours’ notice of our intention to undertake the inspection. This was because Excalibur Serviced Offices provides personal care for people who live in their own homes and in supported living. We needed to therefore be sure someone would be available at the office.

At the time of our inspection the registered provider had two people who were receiving personal care while living with family members in their own homes. One other person was receiving care at certain times throughout the year. The people who were receiving a supported living service were either receiving very little or no personal care.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection who was present throughout our time at the office. 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 and their relatives believed safe care was provided. Staff had knowledge in how they were able to protect people from the risk of harm. Risk assessments were in place regarding people’s care and support needs. There were enough staff to provide the care people were assessed as requiring and were able to accommodate changes as needed. Where needed people were supported with their medicines.

People received care and support which met their preferences and were consulted about these and their consent was sought. People told us staff were kind, caring and respectful. Staff would support people with their dietary and healthcare needs if required.

Staff had not always received up today refresher training to ensure they had the required skills, knowledge and ability to provide care. Management systems had not identified this shortfall. In addition systems in place for the reviewing and monitoring daily records had not identified staff were carrying out a care task. Staff were doing this outside of the agreed plan and there was a lack of consistency on the understanding of this need.

Relatives we spoke with had not needed to raise any complains about the service provided. They felt confident they would be able to do this. The registered provider had not received any complaints. The registered manager kept in regular contact with people to seek their views about the service.