We carried out a review of the data available to us about Helping Hands - East Northumberland on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Helping Hands - East Northumberland, you can give feedback on this service.
Helping Hands - East Northumberland is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to a range of adults with a variety of health care needs, living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection, the provider supported 305 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
Staff were kind and considerate and the majority of people we spoke with would recommend the service to others.
Good infection control procedures were in place and staff followed PPE guidance.
Medicines were managed safely, and a new IT system was in place to monitor this. Care records reflected how people wished to be cared for and included clear details of how staff should do this.
People and their relatives were involved in planning their care and were encouraged to provide feedback regarding the service during reviews and surveys undertaken.
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 enough safely recruited staff available to meet people's needs. Although it was acknowledged that at times recruitment had been slow due to nationwide shortages of care staff.
The vast majority of people, relatives and staff were positive about the changes to the organisation, including the new IT processes the provider had introduced. The provider worked with other healthcare professionals to ensure people received good quality care.
The management team monitored the quality and safety of the service. There was an improved programme of audits and checks in place.
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 requires improvement (published 5 March 2021) and there were breaches of regulations.
At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out an unannounced focussed inspection of this service on 28 January 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. We issued a warning notice. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions, Safe, Responsive and Well-led which contain those requirements.
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 requires improvement to 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 Helping Hands – East Northumberland on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
Helping Hands – East Northumberland provides personal care to adults living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 370 people were receiving support.
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 not always protected from the risk of infection as staff did not always follow government guidance in relation to infection prevention and control procedures.
Policies and procedures in relation to COVID-19 were in place and updated when government guidance changed. Systems were in place to communicate information to the whole staff team.
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 requires improvement (published 5 July 2019).
Why we inspected
We undertook this targeted inspection to check on a specific concern we had about the infection prevention and control practices at the service. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement.
CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified one breach in relation to safe care and treatment at this inspection.
Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for 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 return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
Helping Hands - East Northumberland provides personal care to adults with a range of health issues in their own homes. At the time of the inspection 439 people were supported in this way.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Medicine recordings needed to further improve as staff had not always recorded creams and ointments they applied to people or informed the main office when changes had occurred. People, their relatives and staff told us that travel time between care calls was not always enough and sometimes calls were not at the time agreed.
People and their relatives said staff were kind and caring, and confirmed people's dignity and respect was maintained. 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. People received enough food and drink if this was part of the care provided.
The provider and staff were open and transparent and had a range of quality assurance checks in place to monitor the care provided.
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 requires improvement (published on 13 June 2018) and there was one breach of regulation 12 (safe care and treatment). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations, but some further work was required to fully embed processes and systems.
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. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
This service is a domiciliary care agency based in Cramlington, Northumberland. It provides personal care and other additional support to people living in their own homes throughout the east of Northumberland. Services were provided to adults with a wide range of health and social care needs including physical disabilities, sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental health needs and dementia.
At the time of our inspection there were 597 people receiving a service which was regulated. Not everyone using Helping Hands – East Northumberland received a regulated activity; The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where people receive other support we do take this into account as part of any wider social care provided.
The service had a registered manager in post. The registered manager has been in post since before the service first registered in November 2017 and was well established. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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.
Medicine management had improved in some areas with the implementation of new paperwork, but we found further issues that needed to be addressed, including for example, the accurate completion of medicine administration records.
There was no travel time between care calls and missed calls could not always be monitored robustly. We had previously spoken with the provider about this at their other location in the West of Northumberland and they were in the process of purchasing a new upgrade to their IT system which would address these issues.
People told us they felt safe with the care staff who supported them. Staff told us they would report any concerns about the people they cared for and staff had received suitable training. Any safeguarding incidents had been fully recorded and investigated.
There were enough staff employed and the provider had continuous recruitment drives in place to maintain this. People reported that continuity of staff was an issue on occasions, but from the records we checked, scheduling staff had tried their best to main the same care staff. The provider also said the new IT system will further improve this.
Risk assessments and care plans were not always up to date, but the provider was aware of this and were working their way through people’s care records to ensure new paperwork and all relevant documentation was in place. The newer paperwork, however, was much more person centred and enabled staff to have more individual information about each person they cared for.
Accidents and incidents were recorded and monitored for any trends and further discussed at management meetings.
Recruitment of care staff was continuous and the new HR team were working their way through staff records to ensure all relevant paperwork was in place, including three yearly renewed DBS checks. We found some gaps in staff training, supervision and competency checks, however, the provider was aware of these and had employed a new trainer who had already started updating staff training. Key management staff were working their way through the rest of the backlog.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People told us they were not always asked if they were happy with staff shadowing other staff during visits to their homes. We have made a recommendation about this.
Where food and refreshments were part of a person’s care package, people told us they were happy with the way staff supported them. Where a person needed additional support from outside healthcare professionals, they were supported by staff at the service and we saw evidence of this.
People and their relatives were very complimentary about the care staff who supported them. People were respected and their dignity and independence maintained by staff who cared. We saw examples of the caring relationship which care staff had developed with people and their families and we were given lots of examples of good practice.
People and their families knew how to complain and complaints we reviewed had been dealt with in a timely and proper manner.
The provider had a clear vision for the service and had introduced as part of this; rebranding, including new uniforms, new office environment, new website, new paperwork and a range of new processes. The more complex people who were cared for, were managed by the specialist team. This team now had newly appointed manager's which included the head of the team and a manager for its day to day operation.
Audits were in place but they were behind in their completion for medicines and therefore had not found the issues we had during the inspection.
Policies were in place and some were still under review. We have made two recommendations regarding the accident and incident policy and the receiving of gifts policy and procedures.
The results of a survey had been just recently sent out to people and showed that generally they were satisfied with the service. However, where issues had been raised, the provider gave reassurances that action would be taken.
We found one breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, in relation to safe care and treatment
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.