Archived: Home Instead South Woodham Ferrers

Home Instead South Woodham Ferrers is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 21 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. At the time of the inspection, there were 4 people receiving support with personal care.

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

People were cared for safely by staff who knew them well. However, we found room for improvement in some areas including safeguarding reporting, recruitment and recording of incidents. We have made a recommendation for recruitment.

There were governance processes to monitor the quality of the service. These had not identified all the issues we found; therefore, we were not assured they were effective.

People’s relatives and staff spoke positively about the management of the service. One told us, “The manager is always available” and another said “The team manager will always call me to chat…they always follow through with anything we ask for.”

Staff received an induction and training to enable them to meet people’s needs. Frequent spot checks and competencies were completed, and staff felt supported by the manager.

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.

Staff were caring and kind. They provided care and support respectfully whilst promoting people’s independence. We received positive feedback about the care provided from all the families we spoke with. One said, “I would give them eleven out of ten!”

People’s individual needs were assessed, and their preferences recorded to give staff guidance on how they were to be supported. This included details of any identified risks and how these were mitigated.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.

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 with us on 26 July 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

This was an ‘inspection using remote technology’. This means we did not visit the office location and instead used technology such as electronic file sharing to gather information, and video and phone calls to engage with people using the service as part of this performance review and assessment.