Archived: Kernow Home Care Limited

Updated 29 February 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector and one Expert by Experience with experience of supporting older people. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Kernow Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in Penzance and St Just in West of Cornwall.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced in accordance with our current methodology for the inspection of home care services. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included notification about significant event that had occurred. We used this information and the findings of our previous inspection visits to plan this inspection. The service had completed a Provider Information Return shortly before the inspection but was not available to the inspector until after the inspection. The Provider information return is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this information into account as we made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We visited one person and their relative at home and spoke with a further nine people and two relatives via telephone. We also met and spoke with four members of care staff and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records. We also looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed, including policies, procedures, medicines administration records, staff rotas and the service’s training matrix.

After the inspection

Following the inspection, we spoke with an additional three members of staff by telephone and sought feedback on the service’s performance from a health and social care professional. We also reviewed a range of documents that we had requested from the service during the inspection.

Updated 29 February 2020

About the service

Kernow Home Care Limited is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people livening in their own homes. The service normally provides short visits at key times of the day to help people to get up, go to bed and to prepare meals.

At the time of our inspection the service was supporting approximately 30 older people. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were comfortable with their support staff who they praised for the compassion and care with which they provided support. People comments included, “I must say the carers are very good”, “I think I am spoilt really. They are good” and “Kernow Home Care provide excellent care, I have no complaints.” Records showed people were normally cared for by staff who visited regularly. Staff normally arrived on time for each visit and stayed for the full duration. When care workers were running late they called people to let them know when they would arrived.

Staff understood their role in ensuring people safety and records showed the service manager had appropriately reported safety concerns to the local authority.

The service used an electronic system to plan care visit and ensure that no visit was missed. This system worked well and no one who used the service, or any staff could recall an occasion when a visit had been missed.

Staff had the skills necessary to meet people support needs and their training was regular updated. Staff new to the care sector completed training in line with the requirements of the care certificate.

People were assisted to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were in control of how their care was provided and staff acted to ensure people’s privacy was valued and respected.

Care plans contained enough guidance for staff to enable them to meet peoples individual needs. Risk assessments were completed during the initial care visits and staff were provided with information on how to manage these risks and what support was to be provided during each visit.

The registered manager provided effective leadership to the well-motivated staff team. Staff were proud of the person centred support the service provided and told us, “They are definitely the best company I have worked for” and “The best thing is walking away at the end of the shift and knowing you have done a good deed for people and helped them stay at home.”

There were systems in place for gathering feedback from people who used this service and appropriate procedures in place to ensure any complaints received were investigated and resolved. A survey had been recently completed and people’s feedback had been constantly positive.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at the last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good. (Report published 1 August 2017)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.