Archived: Firstpoint Homecare Ltd (Erdington)

Firstpoint Homecare Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. Firstpoint Homecare Limited also provides support to people on a daily basis that includes staff living with the person in their own home. The support is provided by means of set hours. For example nine till five each day and then another member of staff would remain overnight to support the person. At the time of the inspection the service supported 39 people ranging in age, gender, ethnicity and disability.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection. 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.

Staff felt supported and spoke highly of the management team and felt involved in developing the service. The provider had quality assurance and audit systems in place to monitor the care and support people received. Although not all the systems were effective and required improvement.

People felt they were safe and their homes left secured after staff had completed their visits. Relatives believed their family members were kept safe. Staff understood the different types of abuse and knew what action they would take if they thought a person was at risk of harm. Risks to people were assessed and monitored and people were supported by staff that was provided with guidance on how to manage people’s specific medical conditions. The provider had processes and systems in place that kept people safe and protected them from the risk of harm.

People were supported by sufficient numbers of staff that had been safely recruited although their recruitment processes required some improvement. People were supported with their medication by staff that had received appropriate training. Staff were equipped with sufficient personal protection equipment to reduce the risk of infection and cross contamination when supporting people with their personal care.

People’s needs were assessed by a qualified nurse to ensure the care and treatment provided was individual to the person. People were supported by staff that felt they had the skills and knowledge to care and support people in their homes. Where appropriate, people were supported by staff to access health and social care professionals; with timely referrals made to healthcare services when people’s needs changed.

People were supported to make choices and involved in the care and support they received. The provider was taking the appropriate action to protect people’s rights.

People told us staff members were caring and treated them with dignity and respect. People’s choices and independence was respected and promoted and staff responded to people’s support needs. People were supported with their healthcare needs and felt involved with their care provision.

People felt they could speak with the provider about their worries or concerns and most felt they would be listened to and have their concerns addressed.

People felt reassured the provider would ensure their personal preferences and choices were respected at the end of their life to ensure a comfortable, dignified and pain free death.

Firstpoint Homecare Limited is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal and nursing care to people living in their own homes. Firstpoint Homecare Limited also provides support to people on a daily basis that includes staff living with the person in their own home. The support is provided by means of set hours. For example nine till five each day and then another member of staff would remain overnight to support the person. The service currently provides care and support to 50 people, ranging in age, gender, ethnicity and disability.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of the inspection. 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 provider had quality assurance and audit systems in place to monitor the care and support people received. Although not all the systems were effective; the complaints process did not always record a person’s dis-satisfaction of the service and what action had been taken. This required improvement to ensure the quality of the service was sufficiently monitored for improvements and what action plans had been implemented.

People were left safe and secure in their homes. Relatives believed their family members were kept safe. Staff had received training and understood the different types of abuse and knew what action they would take if they thought a person was at risk of harm. Staff was provided with sufficient guidance on how to support people with specific medical conditions. The provider had processes and systems in place that kept people safe and protected them from the risk of harm.

People were supported by staff that had been safely recruited. People were supported with their medication by staff that had received appropriate training.

Most people felt staff had the skills and knowledge to care and support them in their homes. Staff were trained and supported so that they had the knowledge and skills to enable them to care for people, in a way that met people’s individual needs and preferences. Where appropriate, people were supported by staff to access health and social care professionals.

People were supported to make choices and involved in the care and support they received. The provider was taking the appropriate action to protect people’s rights to ensure their liberty was not being deprived.

Staff was caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People’s choices and independence was respected and promoted and staff responded to people’s support needs. People were supported with their healthcare needs because the provider involved family members if concerns were identified.

People felt they could speak with the provider about their worries or concerns and most felt they would be listened to and have their concerns addressed.

All the people we spoke with told us that they were happy with the care they received. People had been involved in the assessment and planning of their care. People and their relatives told us they were supported by regular staff. One relative told us, 'Staff are respectful and maintain his dignity. They treat him as a person not an object.' This showed people were happy with the service provided.

All the people we spoke with said they felt safe with the staff. One relative told us, 'She feels safe, definitely happy with the carers. She has a very good connection with them.' We saw that there were systems in place to support staff to keep people safe from harm.

Recruitment processes ensured that only suitable people were employed. Staff working at the service felt adequately trained to carry out their roles. This meant that people were supported by staff who had been checked for suitability and had the skills and knowledge to care for them safely.

There were systems in place to monitor the service provided. All the people we spoke with told us that they had been asked their views about the service and felt listened to. One relative told us, 'She wouldn't get better care anywhere else.'