Archived: On The Spot Homecare Services

We found that people were satisfied with the care they received and felt that staff supported their privacy and dignity and helped maintain their independence. They made comments like, "The staff work hard. There isn't one of them that isn't good' and 'They do listen to you and how you want things done.'

We saw that the service had policies and procedures in place for supporting people with medication and that staff were trained in the safe handling of medicines.

We looked at the recruitment process and found that service made the required checks to help ensure that only suitable staff were employed.

Although we recommended some further improvements in the way consent was recorded and care plans were updated, we acknowledged that generally there were good systems in place to audit and review the quality of care.

We did however have some concerns about the records that the agency kept, how the care people received was being managed and also about the support that staff received. We told them to improve the way in which they managed their service.

When we visited on this occasion we found that the service had addressed the areas we asked of them. We looked at the way they kept their records and how they managed the delivery of their care. We also looked at how well they supported their staff. We found that overall they had improved in all these areas and the service was being better managed.