- Homecare service
Thames Homecare Services Greenwich Branch
Assessment report published 26 October 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
This assessment took place between 4 August and 10 September 2026. Thames Homecare Services Greenwich Branch is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of this assessment, 271 people were using the homecare service.
This service was registered with us on 8 January 2024, and this is their first assessment. We assessed all the quality statements from the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. The overall rating for the service requires improvement.
The provider was in breach of legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment and good governance. We identified concerns with recruitment records, the scheduling of care calls, staff timekeeping, the management of identified risks to people, and the accuracy and completeness of medicine records. The provider’s governance systems had failed to identify and address these concerns effectively, increasing the risk that people would receive unsafe and inappropriate care and support from staff. In addition, the process of learning from incidents was inconsistent so we could not be assured the provider was effectively embedding good practice across the service. We also found processes to gather consent were not consistently applied and person centred information in care plans was not sufficient to ensure people’s independence, choice and control would be promoted.
Notwithstanding the issues we found we also found areas of good practice. Assessments were carried out to ensure people's needs could be met. Staff felt supported and received regular training and supervision. Staff supported people to maintain their health and wellbeing and achieve their care goals. Staff asked people’s permission before delivering care and understood the importance of promoting choices.
The service worked in partnership with healthcare professionals. People had access to a range of healthcare services when needed. Managers were approachable and responsive to feedback from people and staff. Staff felt supported and able to raise concerns to senior staff.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
We received generally positive feedback from people and their relatives about the care they received. However, the feedback about some aspects of care delivery was mixed. Many people told us they received care visits on time however a minority of people told us staff timekeeping was inconsistent and they were not informed when staff were running late.
In general people told us they received safe care from familiar staff that knew them well. People and their relatives were involved in the assessment and ongoing review of their care needs. Despite our observations of the quality of care plans and risk assessments people told us staff delivered person centred care in line with their personal preferences and needs. Comments included, “I know what is on my care plan, I told the carers what I wanted, they also know, but listen to me if I need anything different” and “To be honest I don't know what I'd do without them. Because of them I'm able to stay in my own house, thank goodness.”
Many people valued receiving consistent care from familiar staff that knew them well. Comments included, “We have consistently had the same carers coming and [family member] is starting to enjoy their visits” and “We always get the same carers, they are very kind, caring and respectful.”
People’s dignity was upheld and they told us staff were kind and caring. One person told us, “[Family member] is treated very respectfully, staff always ask for his consent before washing and will listen to his wishes, very kind, caring and considerate.”
Most people told us managers were approachable and responsive and made improvements when concerns were raised. However, some people told us they were not satisfied with how the provider responded when they raised concerns about the quality of the service.