# Community Support Services *Operated by Canterbury Oast Trust.* Community Support Services is a CQC-regulated home-care agency in Ashford. ## CQC Ratings | Key question | Rating | | --- | --- | | Overall | Requires improvement | | Safe | Requires improvement | | Effective | Good | | Caring | Good | | Responsive | Good | | Well-led | Requires improvement | Rating published: 19/04/2023 ## Practical info - Postcode: TN26 3RJ - Registered manager: Wardrope, Victoria - Local authority: Kent - Region: South East - City: Ashford - Last CQC check: 19/Apr/2023 - 00:00 ## Inspection findings ### Other - Finding - Evidence: Staff felt valued, supported and part of an inclusive culture. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: Management were visible, approachable and engaged people, relatives and staff in developing the service. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: People were supported to have maximum choice and control; staff worked within MCA principles. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: Registered manager reviewed incidents and shared lessons learned with staff to reduce risk of reoccurrence. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: Staff completed training on safeguarding, epilepsy, food hygiene and infection control; PPE used effectively. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: New senior management team recruited since last inspection; relatives and staff spoke positively about improvements in leadership. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: Governance processes were effective; checks and audits completed regularly with action taken on shortfalls identified. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: Safe recruitment and induction training processes were followed, including for agency staff; people were involved in interviewing prospective staff. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: People received their medicines safely and medicines checks were completed each day to address recording errors quickly. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: Staff provided effective support to identify people's aspirations and goals and promoted people's strengths and independence. - Published: 2023-04-20 - **governance** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: These improvements need to be embedded into day-to-day staff practice. - Published: 2023-04-20 - **staff_competency** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: the management had identified some staff required further coaching and upskilling to ensure people were consistently supported. - Published: 2023-04-20 - **care_planning** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: Further work was needed to upskill staff and embed this across the staff team. Relatives told us the level of support their loved ones received varied depending on which staff were on duty. - Published: 2023-04-20 - **medication_management** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: staff had not always recorded why the medicine had been administered or if it had been effective. Staff had not always contacted a healthcare professional when people were taking PRN medicines regularly. - Published: 2023-04-20 - Finding - Evidence: Some staff demonstrated genuine commitment to residents' wellbeing, including supporting individuals to pursue personal goals. - Published: 2022-10-08 - Finding - Evidence: The new manager had begun re-introducing staff supervision meetings and staff meetings following a two-year gap. - Published: 2022-10-08 - Finding - Evidence: Staff wore PPE effectively, carried out regular COVID-19 testing and understood infection prevention and control. - Published: 2022-10-08 - Finding - Evidence: The interim CEO identified shortfalls before inspection and was working with multi-disciplinary professionals to drive improvements. - Published: 2022-10-08 - Finding - Evidence: People were supported by staff who had been safely recruited, with references, full employment history and DBS checks obtained. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **leadership** _(critical)_ - Evidence: There had not been a registered manager overseeing the service since 2020. The nominated individual was leading the service, and this had not been effective. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **person_centred_care** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: People were not spoken with about the things they would like to do, goals and aspirations or places they would like to go. Staff did not deliver good quality support consistently. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **record_keeping** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: People's medicines administration records (MAR) were not consistently accurately completed. One person's MAR had no medication signed as administered on 10 May 2022. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **incident_learning** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: Accidents and incidents were not consistently monitored and analysed to identify any patterns and trends to make sure any action needed was taken. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **supervision_appraisal** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: The new manager had identified staff training was not up to date and that staff had not had one to one supervision for two years. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **staff_training** _(moderate)_ - Evidence: Only four staff out of 23 had up to date first aid training. Three staff had not completed any first aid training. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **care_planning** _(critical)_ - Evidence: a person who was living with epilepsy last had their care plan reviewed in June 2019. There was no specific epilepsy plan to guide staff about how the person presented. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **governance** _(critical)_ - Evidence: Regular checks and audits of the service had not been completed to ensure people received the support they needed and to monitor the quality and safety of the service. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **staffing_levels** _(critical)_ - Evidence: The provider did not consistently have enough staff to ensure people were able to have one to one support where they were funded to. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **safeguarding** _(critical)_ - Evidence: Staff had not recognised the potential signs of financial abuse or that failing to provide people with the right support to manage their medicines constituted neglect. - Published: 2022-10-08 - **medication_management** _(critical)_ - Evidence: staff failed to collect the person's medicine on time. The person did not have their epilepsy medicine for several days and this resulted in the person having a seizure. - Published: 2022-10-08 ## Source Data published by the [Care Quality Commission](https://www.cqc.org.uk/) under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Canonical page: https://homecarecompass.co.uk/agency/1-6003858710 HomeCare Compass is an independent guide and is not affiliated with the CQC.