A Salford care service has been told to make urgent improvements after inspectors raised concerns over safety.
Paula Integrated Care located in St. James’s House, Pendleton Way, Salford, is a care service that provides personal care to those suffering with physical disabilities and dementia.
The service helps users with household tasks, accessing the local community and with personal medical support. Currently, 29 people are under the service’s care.
The Care Quality Commission has recently published their report on the care service, following an inspection back in February.
The report, which assesses five key areas of care, had come back with ‘requires improvement’ across four of the five areas. The five areas include how safe, effective, well-led, responsive and caring the service. Of the five areas, the only one to be identified as ‘good’ standard is how caring the service is.
Concerns were raised about the training and supervision of staff, with inspectors saying: “Staff training completion had not been documented consistently on the service’s training matrix. We
identified discrepancies between the training staff told us they had done, with what was recorded on the matrix and with certificates in staff files. Following the inspection, we found this was due to some records being stored electronically.
“We also noted issues with the completion dates of some staff’s training. At least three staff were recorded as having completed all eight training sessions on the same day, similarly staff were recorded as having completed all 16 areas of their induction training on the same day, which would not be possible. The registered manager told us this was a recording error.
“People and relatives provided mixed views on staff’s competency and skills. Some felt staff were well trained, whereas others told us staff needed more training, to help them meet people’s current and changing needs.”
The inspectors surveyed people who both work in the service and also family who use the service.
In this survey, families were questioned on how they feel care is administered and how well it is delivered.
The report highlighted positive aspects of the service, with families generally reporting feeling happy with the way their relatives are treated.
It said: “People and relatives spoke positively about the care and support received and the staff who provided this. Comments included, “They’re kind, gentle and friendly and have a conversation with me” and ” They are good, kind and helpful, I wouldn’t let them in if they wasn’t.”
“People told us staff were willing to do anything asked of them. One person commented about how their confidence had increased through the support and encouragement they received.”
“The service ensured people were treated equally and their protected characteristics under the Equality Act were respected and promoted.”
Inspectors have called on the service provider to make improvements after finding that regulations regarding documentation of care and supervision sessions, were breached.
Salford Now has contacted Paula Integrated Care for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
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