Touchheart Healthcare Main Office

Updated 13 June 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team comprised of 1 inspector and 1 Expert by Experience who made telephone calls to people and relatives. 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.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 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.

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. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

Inspection activity started on 10 May 2023 and ended on 18 May 2023. We visited the location's office on 10 May 2023.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke with 2 people who use the service and 3 relatives. We reviewed 3 people's care plans and risk assessments. We reviewed health documents for people. Compliance documents were also reviewed. These included medicines audits, staff competency assessments, training records and recruitment files. We spoke with 1 director who was also the nominated individual and the registered manager, and 4 staff. We also gathered feedback from a local authority who commissioned care from the service.

Updated 13 June 2023

About the service

Touchheart healthcare is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people living in their own home. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people using the service. At this inspection the service provided care for older people and people living with dementia.

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

People and relatives were involved in care plan reviews. Care plans in place were person centred and detailed information around the person including their likes and dislikes.

The provider had processes in place to gain regular feedback from people and relatives. We found the provider took responsive action to areas of improvement made from the feedback received.

Staff were well trained and had all the skills required to complete their role.

We saw the provider had in place further training opportunities and progression for staff to develop within their role.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support 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 on 27th August 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This is the first inspection since the provider has registered with CQC. We received information that had highlighted unsafe recruitment practices, no staff supervision, and no training. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern.

The overall rating for the service is good based on the findings of this inspection.

Follow up

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