HF Trust – Wiltshire DCA is a domiciliary care service providing personal care and support to people. Supported living services enable people to live in their own home and live their lives as independently as possible. The service is run by HF Trust Limited which is a national charity providing services for people with a learning disability. Four people lived in two 2 bedded- bungalows and two people in single flats on the same site as the registered office. Four people lived in a shared house and two people in single person flats in a nearby town. The provider also offered a residential service from the same site as the registered office.

Not everyone using HF Trust – Wiltshire DCA receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At this time the service was supporting 10 people under the regulated activity.

This inspection took place on 27 November 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection was planned to follow up on the two Warning Notices that were served following our last inspection in August 2018. The Warning Notices were served against breaches of Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment and Regulation 17 Good governance of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Regulations 2014. This inspection only looked at the three domains that the Warning Notices were associated with. These were the safe, responsive and well-led domains. We did not look at the effective or caring domains during this inspection.

At the last inspection in 6 August 2018, the service was rated Requires Improvement with the safe domain rated as Inadequate. We found four breaches of the regulations in relation to Consent, Safe care and treatment, Good governance and Staffing. At this inspection we found that the service had made some improvements but had not taken enough action to meet the two Warning Notices. We are currently considering what further action will be taken against this service. Full information about CQC's regulatory response to any concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

At the time of this inspection there was no registered manager in place. A manager was in post from March 2018 and had applied to be the registered manager, however, the decision was taken by the Care Quality Commission to refuse the application in August 2018. 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.

We saw that risk assessments had been updated following our inspection. However, some of these continued to be generic and pre-empted a risk rather than being specific to a person. This did not indicate an active approach to positive risk taking. Where a risk had been identified, the actions to take were set to pending and to be completed in a year’s time, with no sense of urgency. This did not safely ensure that any actions needed to reduce the risk to people were mitigated in a timely manner.

During our inspection we observed that security was not always managed safely. The keys to four people’s medicines and money were put in a drawer, which was not locked and accessible to people.

Medicines continued not to be safely managed. Although we observed there had been some improvements at this inspection, further improvements were required. Weekly checks were being completed by senior staff, however the audit process was not always effective as the shortfalls identified at the inspection had not been picked up through these checks.

Staffing continued to be an issue for the service. Although the staffing levels were met

HF Trust – Wiltshire DCA is a domiciliary care service providing personal care and support to people. Supported living services enable people to live in their own home and live their lives as independently as possible. The service is run by HF Trust Limited which is a national charity providing services for people with a learning disability. Not everyone using HF Trust – Wiltshire DCA receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. At this time the service was supporting 11 people under the regulated activity and 13 people in total.

This inspection took place on 6 August 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection was prompted in part by an inspection of the provider’s residential service on the same site, which has recently been rated as Inadequate. This service shared the same management team, some of the same staff and the same processes and systems. For this reason, we made the decision to inspect this service earlier than we had originally planned. Although short notice is normally given to services providing a domiciliary care service for people, in light of the concerns it was decided it would be unannounced.

At the last inspection in May 2016 the service was rated as Good. At this inspection we found four breaches of the regulations in relation to Consent, Safe care and treatment, Good governance and Staffing. We have served two Warning Notices on the provider in relation to Regulations 12 Safe care and treatment and 17 Good governance. The service is required to achieve compliance within a set timescale or further action will be taken. We have also made a recommendation around opportunities for staff supervision.

The service has been rated as Requires Improvement with the safe domain rated as Inadequate. We will be asking the service for a report of actions of how they will make the necessary improvements and the service will be re-inspected to check this has been done.

At the time of this inspection there was no registered manager in place. A manager at the service had applied to be the registered manager, however the decision was taken by The Care Quality Commission to refuse the application and management of this 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.

We found have the provider and management team at this service failed to meet the requirements of the regulations placing people at risk of receiving inappropriate and unsafe care. Quality monitoring at the service was not robust. There was no effective monitoring or checks made by management and senior management in order to take timely action when shortfalls occurred. The director has implemented some immediate changes to address these concerns but time was needed for the planned actions to be completed before we could judge whether the provider’s actions had been effective in making the required improvements.

You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report. Full information about CQC's regulatory response to any concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

People using the service their and relatives confirmed that people did not always receive their allocated care hours due to staffing shortages. The manager and staff confirmed this was true. This had a negative impact on people’s wellbeing with inconsistent support and times when planned activities had to be cancelled.

The manager failed to appropriately report to external agencies when peo

HF Trust – Wiltshire DCA is a domiciliary care service providing personal care and support to people. Supported living services enable people to live in their own home and live their lives as independently as possible. The service is run by Hft which is a national charity providing services for people with a learning disability. The service currently provides personal care for seven people within their own home.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service and has the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law, as does the provider. 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. We found the service to be well led.

People told us they felt safe. They were supported to stay safe by staff who understood and knew how to protect people and minimise the risk of harm and abuse. All staff had received training in safeguarding vulnerable adults and were able to explain how they would recognise and respond, should they suspect abuse was taking place. Where risk of harm had been identified assessments had been undertaken and plans put in place to minimise these risks.

People received flexible and responsive care and were supported by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their needs. Staff received training and supervision to enable them to meet people’s needs.

The service followed safe recruitment practices which included appropriate checks prior to staff commencing employment with the service. Recruitment processes were in place that had been followed.

People had access to health care support when required and staff responded to health care issues in a timely manner. People received their medicines safely and accurate records were maintained.

People and their relatives were involved in the development of care plans and were able to express how they preferred to receive care and support. The management team were adaptable to changes in people’s needs and communicated changes to staff.

People were supported to maintain a balanced diet and were involved in menu planning. People were able to make their own snacks and drinks, whilst others received the necessary support as required.

People felt that staff treated them with dignity and were supportive in helping them to maintain their independence as much as possible.

The registered manager had regular contact with people using the service. There were policies in place which ensured people would be listened to if they made a complaint and actions would be taken to resolve the situation.

The provider had robust quality assurance systems in place to ensure the quality of service provision.