Kinder Home Care Services

Updated 7 November 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was undertaken by 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience. 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

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to children and young people, and people living in their own houses and flats. This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager.

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was to ensure the registered manager would be available in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 4 October 2023 and ended on 10 October 2023. We visited the location’s office on 4 and 6 October 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 4 people and 8 relatives of people who used the service. We spoke with 8 staff members, including the registered manager, deputy manager, a team leader and support workers. We reviewed a range of records, including 6 people's care records and medicine administration records. We looked at 4 staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed including policies and procedures.

Updated 7 November 2023

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.

About the service

Kinder Home Care Services is a domiciliary care service. They provide personal care to people living in their own homes or individual flats. The service provides support to people with a learning disability and autistic people within a supported living setting.

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 44 people including children were receiving personal care.

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

Right Support: Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs and supported them to make decisions following best practice guidance. Policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Risks to people were assessed and managed. People’s care plans were comprehensive and personalised with their range of needs, abilities and goals. Staff empowered people to pursue hobbies and activities of interest to them.

There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. People received care and support from staff who knew them well and understood their individual needs and preferences. People were supported with their medicines and their dietary needs by staff trained and competent to do so.

Right Care: People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. Staff provided personalised care and support to promote people’s wellbeing, enhance their quality of life and to achieve positive outcomes. Staff were trained and understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and respected their diverse needs and requirements. People’s communication needs were identified, and care plans detailed their preferred ways to communicate and make decisions.

Right Culture: Staff were safely recruited and provided consistently and continuity in care. Staff received an induction and training which included areas of care and support, infection prevention and control, and person-specific training. Action was taken to ensure systems to monitor staff training was kept up to date was strengthened.

Quality systems were in place to monitor the quality of service to enable the provider to improve the service and the lives of people supported. Risks to people were managed effectively and safely and people and their relatives were involved in planning their care. The registered manager was responsive to feedback and introduced a system to ensure people’s care needs were reviewed regularly, involving the person and their families, advocates or other professionals as appropriate.

The registered manager understood their role and responsibilities. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. Feedback received from people, relatives, staff and professionals about the quality of care and the management was consistently positive.

People and their relatives told us they felt confident to approach the management team and that their feedback or complaint would be listened and responded to. The management team had a shared commitment to the culture and values of the service, where people remained at the centre of their care and support.

The management and staff worked with external agencies and health and social care professionals. Local authority commissioners reported the provider was responsive to feedback and was working with them to make the required improvements and recommendations.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good at the last inspection (published 10 October 2018). The rating remains good.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and prompted in part due to concerns received about the quality of care and risks to people.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe sections of this full report.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.