Archived: Home Support

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.

People's needs were assessed before a service was provided and people were involved in planning their care and support on an on-going basis. Staff knew how to support people to make decisions and were aware of decisions that had been made in people's best interests.

People told us they always knew who would provide the service and their care was provided by the same two staff. They told us they felt safe with staff as they had the skills and experience to meet their needs. 'The care is absolutely great. My relative sees the same staff and they are focused on them as an individual'.

The provider had processes in place to monitor the quality of the service. People told us the provider regularly spoke with them about the service they received and responded positively to their comments. One person said, 'I am so, so pleased with the support they provide to me and my relative'.

People's needs were assessed before a service was provided and people were involved in planning their care and support on an on going basis.

People knew when staff would call on them and who was coming. They told us that they felt safe with staff and were treated with respect and dignity.

The staff we spoke with had knowledge and understanding of people's needs and knew people's routines and how they liked to be supported.

Everyone we spoke with said that the service they received was excellent and described the service as 'fantastic' and 'very, very good.'

One staff member told us, 'The best thing about this service is that all the staff really care about the people we look after.'

You can see our judgements on the front page of this report.