We carried out a review of the data available to us about Right at Home - Mid Hampshire on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Right at Home - Mid Hampshire, you can give feedback on this service.
Right at Home are a national provider of care and support to people in their own homes. It operates a franchise model and Country Caregivers Limited (referenced throughout this report as the provider) manage one of these franchises called Right at Home - Mid Hampshire. The support provided includes short, or long term, visits to support with personal care, meal preparation, medicines management, domestic support, companionship and live-in care. The service mainly supported older people or older people living with dementia, but also supported younger adults with physical disabilities, including neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease. A small number of people, experienced mental health problems.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. When we inspected, 58 people were receiving support that included personal care.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Despite the challenged presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, staff had continued to prioritise ensuring that people were treated with kindness and respect and given emotional support when it was needed. The caring culture within the organisation continued to be embedded at every level and people continued to tell us that their care workers were exceptionally kind, caring and compassionate and that they had built trusting and meaningful relationships. Staff had exceeded what was expected of them and had often carried out extra, thoughtful acts for those they were supporting. Staff were particularly skilled at supporting people in a way which ensured they retained choice and control over their care. Staff demonstrated a thorough understanding of the importance of providing just the right amount of support to maximise people’s independence.
Staff had an excellent understanding of people’s individual needs and the care remained focussed on providing person-centred care that was achieving good outcomes for people. There was a strong emphasis on providing people with the best continuity of care possible which enabled staff to develop close bonds with people. Staff went out of their way to support people in a way that met their individual needs and preferences and helped them to overcome barriers, regain skills and confidence all of which had made a positive difference to their lives. The service worked collaboratively with health and social care professionals, trying innovative ways to support people with their healthcare needs. Staff supported people to continue to feel involved in their local community and to take part in activities that were meaningful to them. They understood the increased impact that isolation had had on people since the pandemic started and did all they could to compensate for this. Health care professionals told us that the service had developed a reputation for providing outstanding and responsive end of life care. The end of life care was holistic, and person centred, and staff were particularly skilled at providing end of life care with empathy and compassion.
Staff had confidence that the leadership team managed the service well and had provided a nurturing and supportive environment that helped to ensure they were able to perform their role effectively. Overall, there were high levels of satisfaction amongst the staff team, despite the challenges of the last 18 months. Staff mostly reported a positive culture that was enabling, supportive and helped to ensure that they felt valued. Overall, there continued to be effective quality assurance systems in place which helped to ensure that the registered manager and provider had an oversight of the quality of care people were receiving. The service made an active contribution to the local community and worked effectively with health and social care professionals to meet people’s needs.
Overall, people’s medicines were managed safely and the systems in place supported this. There were some areas which could be developed further in line with best practice standards. People told us they felt safe when receiving care. Staff had a positive attitude to reporting concerns. They were confident the registered manager would act upon these. Risks to people and to the care workers supporting them had been assessed and planned for. Overall, there were sufficient staff to provide people with a service that was reliable, provided good continuity and was safe. Staff followed safe infection prevention and control practices. Staff understood their responsibility to report and record safety related events. Opportunities to learn from safety related incidents were not always maximised.
Staff were positive about their induction and training, which was delivered around the needs of people using the service.
We have though made a recommendation about providing more in-depth mental health training for staff.
Supervisions and spot checks had fallen behind the frequency noted in the providers policy, however, overall, staff all felt well supported in their roles and felt able to seek advice or guidance from the leadership team when needed. There was a holistic approach to assessing, planning and delivering care and people described the care and support they received as being very effective at meeting their needs. Staff worked collaboratively to ensure that people’s healthcare needs were met. 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. Staff supported people to have access to food and drink of their choice.
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 27 December 2019).
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The agency has provided a consistently high quality of care. People and relatives all told us about the excellent care they received. People thought of staff as their friends and felt valued and respected. People felt listened to and fully involved in decisions about their care and were encouraged to be as independent as possible.
Staff had time to get to know people which helped them to be empathetic about their needs and wishes. They were sensitive and supportive, when people were finding things particularly difficult, or when people wanted to celebrate. This made them exceptionally caring.
The agency provided a reliable and flexible service to the people they supported. This had helped some people to stay in their own homes for longer than they had expected to. They had been very good at helping to support people at the end of their lives.
People told us the agency provided care in a safe way. There were sufficient numbers of safely recruited staff. Staff managed medicines in a safe way and effective measures were in place to control the spread of infection. People felt comfortable to raise any concerns they had and the agency made improvements when they had identified things had gone wrong. This ensured the agency provided good care which was safely delivered.
People said this service was effective in providing a good quality of care. Staff understood the support they needed to provide and were provided with suitable training to help them to deliver this care effectively. The agency worked co-operatively with others when people's needs were complex, to ensure all of their health and social care needs were being met.
The agency was well managed with a governance framework in place to ensure responsibilities were clear and that quality performance was reviewed regularly to ensure people received the care they had agreed to.
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 1 Dec 2016).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Right at Home Mid Hants on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Right at Home (Mid Hampshire) provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of this inspection they were providing a service to 37 people with a variety of care needs, including people living with physical frailty or memory loss. Some people were receiving live in care services from the provider. The provider is managed from an office based in Eastleigh.
There was a registered manager in place. 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
We received some excellent feedback about the provider, without exception people, their relatives and health professionals told us they were extremely happy with the care and support provided by Right at Home.
People, relatives, staff and professionals told us the provider was extremely well led with a clear, supportive management structure in place. The registered manager and managing director were actively involved in the day to day running of the service, fostering an ‘above and beyond’ approach, which was reflected by the motivation and dedication of their staff to the people they support.
Staff were passionate about their roles and were highly motivated to develop their skills and knowledge through training, supervision and peer support to enrich their working practice. Staff demonstrated a clear understanding of the provider’s values and this translated into delivering safe, effective and person centred care to people using the service.
The provider worked in partnership with other organisations to provide positive outcomes for people. Strong working relationships with professional organisations within people’s circle of support were fostered, helping to ensure that people’s needs were met and changes in their health were pro-actively identified and sensitively managed.
The provider had strong links to the community. They were actively involved in charity and advocacy groups which provided training and support for families, staff and meaningful day activities for people using the service. Staff were empowered to seek out and encourage opportunities for people to participate in their community. This helped to stimulate people’s interests and helped to avoid social isolation.
The provider had a strong vision and was skilled in providing excellent end of life care. Staff promoted people's dignity, choice and independence when caring for them. Care was provided in collaboration with people and their families to ensure that people were treated with kindness, compassion and their wishes respected.
Staff had extensive knowledge of people they worked with and their life histories. They supported people to maintain relationships that were important to them by using care flexibly to fit into their routines and timetables. Care was arranged to fit into the needs of the people, not the convenience of the provider.
The provider had a strong desire to learn and improve. Incidents were analysed to identify underlying causes which led to improvements being made. Quality Assurance systems were used to assess the quality of the service being provided and to identify areas for development. The provider was honest and transparent when things went wrong, management took responsibility for ensuring that people and their families were involved and informed about issues, problems and plans going forward.
Personalised care reflected people’s preferences and wishes. People were involved in their care planning and the registered manager had an open door policy to help ensure that people felt listened to and their opinion valued. People told us that they were confident in making a complaint and that issues raised had been resolved appropriately.
Staff knew how to meet people’s needs; they were suitably trained and supported in their work. Staff followed legislation designed to protect people’s rights and freedoms and were secure in their ability to identify and report concerns.
Risks relating to people were managed safely. The provider sought to identify and implement ways to reduce risks whilst taking into account people's wishes. The provider had a clear vision to promote people's dignity, choice and independence when caring for them.
People were supported to maintain their health and wellbeing. They received appropriate support around their nutrition, hydration and medicines. People were supported to health appointments when required.