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Archived: Hartley Home Care

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Penclease House, 13 Clease Road, Camelford, Cornwall, PL32 9QX (01840) 213294

Provided and run by:
Hartley Home Care

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 20 January 2016

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.

The unannounced inspection of Hartley Home Care took place on 26 and 27 November 2015. The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and two experts by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service. Their area of expertise was in older people’s care.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service and notifications we had received. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law.

During the inspection we went to the provider’s office and spoke with the provider, the registered manager, two care co-ordinators and the training co-ordinator. We spoke with five care staff over the telephone. We visited two people in their own homes and had telephone conversations with a further 33 people.

We looked at records relating to the service provided to people, four staff recruitment files, staff duty rosters and records relating to the running of the service.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 20 January 2016

Hartley Home Care is a domiciliary care service that provides care and support to people in their own homes. The service provides support and care to mainly older people who require assistance with personal care, dressing, meal preparation and the prompting of medicines. This includes people with physical disabilities and dementia care needs. The service mostly provides care for people in short visits at key times of the day to help people get up in the morning, go to bed at night and support with meals.

At the time of the inspection the service provided support for 89 people in Camelford, Padstow, Bude, Launceston, Wadebridge and surrounding areas of Cornwall. There was a registered manager in post who was responsible for the day-to-day running of the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We carried out this unannounced inspection on 26 and 27 November 2015. At this focused inspection we checked to see if the service had made the required improvements identified at the inspection on 17 June 2015. We also checked if the overall improvements we found in June 2015, to the quality and reliability of the service people received, had been sustained. At the comprehensive inspection on 17 June 2015 we found the effectiveness of the service people received had improved from previous inspections. However, there were inconsistencies in the way systems to monitor the quality of the service were implemented and recorded. Although we did not find any breaches of regulations at the June inspection the service had a history of non-compliance with the regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 since March 2010. This report only covers our findings in relation to the questions: is the service safe and is the service well led. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Hartley Home Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

At this inspection we found the registered manager had further improved the systems for monitoring the quality of the service provided. They kept an overview of any changes to people’s visits and any concerns raised about the service provided by working closely with the care co-ordinators on a daily basis. Appropriate action was then taken to rectify issues raised and make any system changes to prevent a re-occurrence of specific incidents.

We also found the efficiency of the service people received had been sustained. We received positive feedback from people and their relatives about the quality and reliability of the service provided. Comments included, “The carers are marvellous, I’ve got no worries about them”, “The people who come to my home are very good, they are always courteous to me, they’re lovely” and “I like the girls I have, they’re excellent.”

People told us they had regular staff, received visits at the time of their choosing and staff stayed for the allocated time. People’s comments included, “I have regular carers so I always know who’s coming and I prefer that, it makes me feel safer“, “We get the full time my husband has been allocated”, “They certainly do their job and stay the time” and “I agreed a time that I would like to get up in the morning and they visit within 30 minutes of that time.”

The service gave people details of the times of their planned visits and kept them informed of any changes to the visit times. People told us, “I am sent an email rota for the week telling me who is coming and at what time”, “The carers tell me day by day who will be coming” and “If they are going to be late, they will phone me.”

Staff in the office had worked together to improve the staff rosters and reduce the number of changes made after staff had received their list of work. One care co-ordinator said, “It has made a difference to the rotas that the care co-ordinators work together. If we get the rotas right then there is less chance of change and if there are fewer changes then this reduces the risk of mistakes being made and visits being missed.”

No one told us they had experienced missed visits. However, the registered manager advised us there had been two missed visits during the weekend before our inspection. The registered manager had investigated these incidents and taken appropriate action to minimise the risk of any further re-occurrences.

Staff had received training in how to recognise and report abuse. All were clear about how to report any concerns and were confident that any allegations made would be fully investigated to help ensure people were protected. There were adequate numbers of suitably qualified staff available to keep people safe.

Staff told us they felt supported by management and were committed to providing a good service for people. Comments from staff included, “The running of the service is a lot better than it was”, “I enjoy what I do” and “We have staff meetings and get regular letters giving us updates on any changes.”

Before people started using the service a manager visited them to carry out an assessment of their needs and discuss how the service could meet their wishes and expectations. A relative of one person, whose care package had started two days before our inspection, told us a manager visited them before the service started. They told us the manager explained about the service and wrote a care plan for the person receiving the service.

People were asked for their views of the service they received and they were confident that their views were listened to and acted upon. People and their relatives told us, “Yes they have occasionally asked for feedback”, “Yes they did act on it”, “I have had the occasional complaint but it has mostly been about their rota times. It has been dealt with immediately”, “I was asked my opinion about the care plan which I was happy with” and “I have received questionnaires from the office asking about my care.”