Helping Hands Taunton

Helping Hands Taunton is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection they were providing a personal care service to 18 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

People and relatives gave us positive feedback about the service. Comments included; “Staff are lovely and love their work,” “The service is reliable” and “Communication is good.”

People felt safe with the staff who supported them. Staff understood the signs of abuse and felt confident any safeguarding concerns reported were listened and responded to. People received their prescribed medicines safely and on time.

We were assured the service were following safe infection prevention and control procedures to keep people safe with regard to the current COVID 19 pandemic. The service had monitoring arrangements to ensure all aspects of infection control followed best practice guidance.

Staff monitored people's health and wellbeing and worked with other professionals to make sure people received the treatment they required. People received safe and effective care because training, supervision and observation visits in people’s homes ensured staff had the necessary qualifications, competence, skills and experience.

People's risk assessments and care plans provided staff with detailed, up to date information about how to safely care for each person.

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 personalised care from staff who knew them well and how to support their needs.

The service was well led. Staff felt well supported and reported good communication, team working and staff morale. Quality monitoring systems were used effectively to oversee the safety and quality of the service and make continuous improvements.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered on 12 August 2019 and this was the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to safeguarding concerns received and because the registered manager had left. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the Safe and Well Led sections of this full report. The provider has taken action to mitigate the risks and these have been effective.

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.