Xen Care Services

The provider was not always able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture. We signposted the provider to relevant information. We have made a recommendation the provider fully assesses the care and support provision at Kare Plus Ipswich to embed the principles of right support, right care, right culture into care planning and delivery.

In the 6 prior weeks to the start of our inspection a new management team had taken over the day to day running of the service. Improvements had been made and were ongoing regarding care planning and risk management and a new electronic care planning system was being implemented. Further work was needed to embed the new governance and oversight arrangements as at the time of the inspection it was too soon to assess their overall effectiveness.

This was a focused inspection to follow up on the previous breach of regulations and to check improvements had been made to mitigate the risk. We found that progress had been made and was ongoing regarding safe care and treatment and the service was no longer in breach of this regulation. However, the service remained in breach of regulation 17, as progress to their governance and oversight arrangements since our last inspection was slower than expected. The provider advised this was due to some personnel changes that had impacted on the delivery timescales.

Right Support: People were supported by a staff team who were safely recruited and received training relevant to their role and to meet people's needs. This included The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism. This is the government's preferred and recommended standardised training for health and social care to undertake.

People received their medication as prescribed and staff adhered to infection prevention and control procedures in line with legislative requirements and recognised best practice guidelines.

Right Care: Improvements had been made and were ongoing to the provider's systems to assess and manage risks safely for people. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and for staff to support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the polices and systems in the service to support this practice were being reviewed.

The majority of feedback from people and their relatives about their experience with Kare Plus Ipswich was positive and they were satisfied with their care and support arrangements. Where personal care was provided people said this met their needs, they were treated with respect, consent was sought and they were complimentary about the approach of staff.

On occasion where people had an issue the provider had acted appropriately to address this. We did signpost the provider to a quality care concern during the inspection.

Right Culture: The provider's governance arrangements did not provide assurance the service was consistently well led. The systems and processes to oversee the quality assurance of the service were not robust and effective, as they had not identified the shortfalls we found during our inspection and regulatory requirements were not always being met.

Systems for auditing had been introduced but needed further development to consistently analyse, report and evidence the actions taken and where applicable lessons learnt. We signposted the provider to seek support in this area and were encouraged by them contacting support from relevant professionals including the local authority.