Hands In Harmony Home Care Services Limited

Updated 4 January 2024

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

This inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and 1 Expert by Experience. 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

Hands in Harmony Home Care Services Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care and a short term reablement service 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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 November 2023 and ended on 24 November 2023. We visited the location’s office on 22 November 2023.

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. 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 this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We contacted 10 people using the service and 2 relatives to gain their views of the care provided. We spoke with the registered manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We also had discussions with 8 staff that included the office manager, training manager, 2 team leaders and 4 care and support staff. We sent emails to 10 staff members for feedback, and we received 6 responses.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people's care records, risk assessments and medication records. We looked at staff recruitment documents and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including staff training and supervision records, quality assurance information and feedback from people and staff.

Updated 4 January 2024

About the service

Hands in Harmony Home Care Services Limited provides personal care and reablement support to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection 60 people were using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive the regulated activity of personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of this inspection 30 people were receiving support with personal care.

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

We received exceptional feedback about the service. Comments from people who used the service and relatives were very complimentary and consistent stating they were extremely happy with the care, treatment and support the service provided.

There were exceptional relationships between people, their families, and members of staff. People and relatives told us about the positive impact the service had on their lives and how things had changed for the better. Each person was treated as an individual and as a result, their care was tailored to meet their exact needs.

There was an extremely positive culture within the service and the management team provided strong leadership and led by example. The management team had clear visions, values, and enthusiasm about how they wished the service to be provided and these values were shared with the whole staff team. Staff had clearly adopted the same ethos and enthusiasm and this showed in the way they spoke about people and their caring roles.

People told us they felt safe, and their care was well delivered. Detailed risk assessments were in place to protect people from the risk of harm. Robust procedures were in place to ensure care visits were not missed.

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.

Staff and managers were clear about their responsibility to safeguard people from abuse. People received care in their own homes from staff whose suitability was established through recruitment processes. People received their medicines safely and staff followed appropriate infection, prevention and control practices.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published 09 December 2018)

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-led.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained Good based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hands in Harmony Home Care Services Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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