Archived: Home Is Where the Help Is Ltd

Updated 3 October 2020

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. Having consideration of the coronavirus pandemic, we made suitable arrangements with the registered manager before we attended a site visit.

Inspection activity started on 10 September 2020 and ended on 22 September 2020. We visited the office location on 22 September 2020.

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 and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

We used the information the provider sent us in the annual provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager and remotely reviewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures. At the site visit we looked at three people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to their recruitment, training and supervision.

We contacted people, relatives, external professionals and staff for their feedback of the service. We spoke with three people and two relatives by telephone. We received feedback from one relative, seven staff and four external professionals via email.

Updated 3 October 2020

About the service:

The service is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people living in their own homes throughout Northumberland. At the time of this inspection there were 28 people using the service.

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 felt very safe with the staff who visited them. People’s care needs were risk assessed and measures were in place to reduce risks. Accidents and incidents were investigated, recorded and acted upon to prevent a repeat occurrence.

Staff were fully aware of safeguarding processes. Solid systems were in place to protect people from the risk of harm or abuse. Medicines were well managed and there were good infection control measures in place.

Staff recruitment was safe and there were enough staff to safely deliver a consistent service. We have made a recommendation about the job application process to ensure best practice guidelines are followed.

The registered manager promoted a person-centred culture. There were good working relationships between staff, relatives and external professionals to ensure people got any additional support they needed.

Significant improvements had been made to the service and the whole staff team continued to learn and develop. The registered manager carefully monitored the quality and safety of the service. All regulatory requirements were met.

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 9 August 2019) where we identified one breach of the regulations. 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.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider 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 and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. 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 Home Is Where the Help Is Ltd 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 re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.