Archived: Home Support

Updated 1 February 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 10 January 2016. The provider was given a few days’ notice because the location is a domiciliary care agency and we needed to be sure that staff would be at the office. The inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

We gathered and reviewed information about the service before the inspection. We received a Provider Information Return (PIR) for this inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed all the information we held about the service. We looked at previous inspection reports and checked for any notifications we had received from the provider. This is information about important events that the provider is required to send us by law.

We visited one person in their home and spoke with another person by phone. We spoke to the provider, one member of staff and reviewed a range of documents about people’s care and how the service was managed. We looked at two care plans, risk assessments, complaints records, quality assurance surveys and internal audits that had been completed.

The service was last inspected in February 2014 when there were no concerns identified.

Updated 1 February 2017

This announced inspection was carried out on 10 January 2017.

Home Support is a domiciliary care agency providing a personal care service to people in their own home.

The provider had been running the service for several years and now planned to retire and move abroad. The provider had been gradually reducing the size of the agency and had not taken on any new people or staff for some time. The provider was currently supporting two people and planned to handover their care to another agency by the end of March this year.

As this provider was an individual and was also the registered manager of the service. The provider was in day to day charge of the agency. A registered provider is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. They are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

This was a small agency with a small staff team. The staff met regularly and supported each other. The staff shared the provider’s ethos of providing person centred care to people and supporting people to stay in their own homes if this was their wish.

People were very complimentary about the service and said they were sad it was closing soon. People told us they felt safe when staff were in their homes and said staff knew what they were doing. They said staff were always respectful of their privacy and dignity and they had good relationships with staff who were very reliable.

The staff team were experienced. They were trained and supported by the provider. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and all staff had been checked before working with people. One person told us that their relative’s ‘face lit up when staff arrived.’

Each person had a care plan that they had been involved in writing and any potential risks had been assessed and were being managed. Staff supported people to remain healthy and well and helped with food and drink preparation if needed.

Staff were trained in how to manage medicines safely but were not currently supporting anyone with their medicines. Staff understood about capacity and consent and always gave people choices in ways they could understand.

People were asked for their views about the service and the provider acted on any suggestions to improve. The provider checked that staff were providing good care and gave them feedback to improve if and when needed. There had been no complaints and people knew who to complain to.