Archived: Havering

Havering is a domiciliary care service based in London Borough of Havering. The service is registered to provide personal care for people in their own home. At the time of our inspection, the service provided a service to 200 people, who received personal care and support in their own homes.

The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered care homes, 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.

There was a good management structure in place with clear vision and objectives to ensure the service was run effectively. Various regular auditing systems helped the service to identify areas that worked smoothly and that needed improvement. The recruitment of relatives (carers) as board trustees allowed them to be involved in meetings at a senior level and to influence how the service was run.

People’s care plans were based on their needs. We noted that each person had a risk assessment which identified possible risks and how they could be managed. Most of the people did not require support with medicines. However, we noted that there were appropriate systems in place to ensure that medicines were safely administered and recorded for those who needed staff support.

Staff told us they were well supported by their managers and they liked their job. We noted they had had an understanding of people's needs and demonstrated that they had good knowledge of adult safeguarding to ensure people were protected from abuse. Records showed that staff had access to various training programmes including a comprehensive induction programme when they started work at the service.

The service had a robust staff recruitment process in place to ensure new staff were checked and were suitable to support people. There were enough staff to support the people using the service.

People were able to make decisions about their care. Staff told us they respected people’s wishes and treated them with respect and dignity. We noted staff had work experience of supporting people and had attended various training programmes including Mental Capacity Act (2005). The service had a complaints procedure in place and people and their relatives could be confident that their concerns would be taken seriously by and investigated by the registered manager.