Harmony Homecare (NW) Limited

Harmony Homecare North West is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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. At the time of the inspection there were approximately 150 people receiving the regulated activity personal care.

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

Statutory notifications were not always submitted as required, for incidents such as safeguarding concerns. Statutory notifications must be submitted to CQC legally so that we can respond appropriately. We will follow this up outside of this inspection process.

People said they felt safe using the service. There were enough staff to care for people safely and correct staff recruitment procedures were followed. Staff understood about safeguarding and how to report concerns. People’s care plans contained risk assessments, with information about how to keep them safe.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of service including spot checks of staff’s practice, staff supervision and audits of areas such as medication and communication logs. Competency assessments for moving and handling had not been carried out, however. We have made a recommendation regarding this.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published September 2020).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. For those key questions not inspected (Effective, Caring and Responsive) we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating has remained as good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Harmony Homecare North West on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and recommendations:

We have made a recommendation about ensuring moving and handling competency assessments are carried out.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Harmony Homecare North West is a domiciliary care agency that is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes and is also registered to provide a sitting service to children. The agency provides support to people living in the Wigan area of Greater Manchester. At the time of the inspection there were approximately 160 people using the service. This was the first comprehensive inspection we had undertaken at this location.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The people we spoke with told us they felt safe. The staff we spoke with had a good understanding about safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures and told us they wouldn’t hesitate to report concerns about people’s safety.

We looked at how medication was handled at one of the houses we visited. We found Medication Administration Records (MARs) were signed by staff when medication had been administered. People who used the service also told us they received their medication as part of their care package and told us they always received it on time.

We found there were sufficient staff to care for people safely. Staff spoken with didn’t raise any concerns about staffing numbers within the service and said their rotas were well managed, with sufficient travel time available in between calls.

Staff were recruited safely, with appropriate checks undertaken before they began working with people who used the service. This included ensuring Disclosure Barring Service/Criminal Records Bureau (DBS/CRB) checks were undertaken and references from previous employers sought.

The staff we spoke with told us they had access to sufficient training and supervision as part of their on-going development. Staff said they felt supervision was an important part of their job role where they could discuss different aspects of their work. Some staff training still needed to be completed, however the registered manager confirmed these courses were in the process of being arranged.

Staff provided support to people to eat and drink as necessary. This included assistance with food preparation and ensuring people were left with something to drink when their call had finished. One person had recently commenced with a mashed diet due to them having swallowing problems and this was recorded in their care plan.

The people we spoke with and their relatives told us they were happy with the care provided by the service. People told us staff treated them with dignity and respect and promoted their independence as much as possible.

Each person who used the service had a care plan in place and we saw a copy was kept in the person’s home and at the office. The care plans provided an overview of each person’s care needs and were updated when things changed. The people we spoke with also said an initial assessment was undertaken, when they first started using the service. This enabled the service to understand the level of care people needed.

The service distributed satisfaction questionnaires to people, asking for their comments about the service. This enabled the service to continually improve its practice with the aid of people’s experiences.

There was a complaint’s procedure in place, this procedure enabled people to state if they were unhappy with the service. The people we spoke with were aware of how to make a complaint. The service also collated positive compliments that had been made based on people’s experiences.

People who used the service and staff told us they felt the service was well managed. Staff told us they felt well supported and would feel comfortable raising and discussing concerns.

We saw there were systems in place to monitor the quality of service provided. This was done in the form of audits, spot checks and observations of staff undertaking their work. Staff also had access to policies and procedures if they needed to seek guidance in a particular area.