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Happy at Home Community Care Services Ltd.

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Unit 5, Bellman Court, Great Knollys Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 7HN (0118) 467 5838

Provided and run by:
Happy at Home Community Care Services Ltd.

All Inspections

11 May 2023

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Multi-Care Community Services Reading Ltd is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people. The service provides support to older people, younger adults, people with dementia, a physical disability, learning disability and autistic people. At the time of our inspection there were 129 people using the service.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

Right Support

People’s care plans did not identify and mitigate risks to people. Medicines were not always managed safely. The service supported people to have control and independence over their own lives. Staff supported people to take part in activities and pursue their interests in their local area. Staff supported people to play an active role in maintaining their own health and wellbeing.

Right Care

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to people’s individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

Right culture

Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. People and those important to them, were involved in planning their care. Staff evaluated the quality of support provided to people, involving the person and other professionals as appropriate.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 28 June 2018)

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the documentation and information held within peoples care plans and risk assessments, and the management of people’s care needs. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Multi-Care Community Services Reading Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to medicines management, risk assessments and governance of the service at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

21 May 2018

During a routine inspection

This inspection took place on 21 May 2018 and was announced. Multi-Care Reading Community Services Limited is a Domiciliary Care Agency that provides personal care to people with a variety of needs living in their own homes. At the time of inspection, the service was delivering personal care to twelve people living in their own homes. This service has never been inspected.

At the time of our inspection a manager was in place at the service. They had submitted an application to The Care Quality Commission (CQC) to be the registered manager. 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.

People told us they felt safe. There were systems in place to protect people from the risk of abuse and potential harm. Staff were aware of their responsibility to report any concerns they had about people's safety and welfare.

Relatives spoke positively about the care and support offered by Multi-Care Community Services Reading Ltd.

People told us they had formed trusting relationships with staff. People's privacy and dignity were protected. They and their relatives told us staff treated them with respect.

People had their needs assessed and received appropriate person-centred care that was individualised to their specific needs. Staff were aware of their responsibilities to ensure people's rights were promoted.

Where required people were supported to access healthcare services to maintain their health and wellbeing.

The service had quality assurance systems in place to monitor the running of the service and improve the quality of the service being delivered. People and their relatives were encouraged to comment on how they felt about the service provided.