Archived: Advance Home Help and Support Services Also known as Lesley Lewington

Updated 27 March 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 and one 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 people living in their own houses and flats.

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

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 13/02/2020 and ended on 14/02/2020. We visited the office location on 13/02/2020.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people who used the service and four relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with four members of staff including the registered manager, care co-ordinator and two support workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at four staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and policies and procedures.

Updated 27 March 2020

About the service

Advance Home Help and Support Services is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community.

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 the service was providing care and support to 17 people.

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

People were not always supported by staff who had consistently received the necessary training and support to fulfil the role they were employed to do. We have made a recommendation about this.

Quality assurance system and processes were not sufficiently robust and were not effective in addressing the concerns we found.

Recruitment at the service was safe and sufficient checks took place before people were employed to work with vulnerable adults.

Assessments of people's care and support needs were carried out before they started using the service.

People told us they were treated with respect, kindness and compassion. People were supported by a small but consistent staff team who knew them well.

Risks to people were assessed, monitored and reviewed regularly or when people's needs changed.

People were supported with their medicines safely; they received these on time and as prescribed. However, competency assessments to assess staff understanding and knowledge in medicines administration had not been recorded. We have made a recommendation about this.

People were supported with their nutritional and hydration needs where this had been identified as part of their care.

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.

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 Good (report published 14 March 2017).

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. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.