Dementia@Home

Dementia@Home is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care for people in their own homes. Information about the risks people faced and the support staff should provide to keep them safe was not always available. The registered manager took immediate action during the assessment to resolve this. The service learned from incidents and action was taken to ensure improvements were made where needed. There was a clear safeguarding and whistleblowing policy available with details of which agencies to contact in the event of any concern. Staff had been recruited safely and there were sufficient, well-trained staff to meet people's needs. Staff worked with other services to ensure people’s needs were met effectively. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of people's individual needs. People and their relatives were involved in decisions about their care. However, the care plans that were developed with people were generic and did not always contain specific information about people’s needs and how staff should support them. People had been supported to express their wishes about future care needs. Staff told us they had the support they needed to do their job well. Staff were able to contact the management team at any time for support and guidance. The service completed regular staff surveys to receive feedback. Quality assurance systems were used to review the performance of the service. However, these systems had not always identified shortfalls in the way the service was operating, for example, in relation to risk management information and the records staff kept. During the assessment the registered manager took immediate action to address the shortfalls and established new systems to improve the governance systems in the future.