Archived: At Home With You

Updated 17 July 2018

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.

This inspection took place on 06 June 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provided a domiciliary care service. The provider can often be out of the office supporting staff and we needed to ensure that someone would be in. The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.

As part of the inspection we reviewed information we held about the service including statutory notifications that had been submitted. Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also asked the local authority if they had any information to share with us about the service. The local authority is responsible for monitoring the quality and for funding some of the people receiving care support.

During the inspection we spoke with one person who received care by telephone. We also spoke with three relatives of people who received care. We spoke with the registered provider, the deputy manager and seven care staff. We also looked at four staff recruitment files, four care plans for people receiving care, medicine prompting record sheets, carer’s communication logs and management reports of call times.

Updated 17 July 2018

At our last comprehensive inspection of this service on 09 August 2016, we rated the service as ‘requires improvement.’ We found the provider to be in breach of Regulation 17, good governance because systems and processes in place to monitor and improve the quality of care people received were not robust in identifying areas requiring improvement and ensuring that action was taken in a timely way. We asked the provider to complete an action plan to show us what they would do to improve this and the action plan was received by us within the requested time frame.

This inspection was announced and took place on 06 June 2018. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of our intention to undertake the inspection. This was because the service provides domiciliary care to people in their own homes and we needed to make sure someone would be available at the office.

At Home with You is registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes. There was a registered manager in place who is also the registered provider. 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. At the time of our inspection nine people received care and support services.

People told us they felt safe with the support of staff but staff frequently did not arrive for calls at the agreed time and this could leave people waiting for care or not knowing if staff were coming. People told us they received their medicines as required and staff said they had received medication training to support people appropriately.

People received care from staff that understood how to keep them safe and minimise the risk of potential harm.

The provider did not consistently complete appropriate employment checks to ensure staff were suitable to deliver care and support before they started work.

People told us regular staff knew them well and had the skills and knowledge to meet their needs. Staff told us they received the right training for the people they supported.

People said staff supported them by preparing a choice of meals and drinks to support their wellbeing. Staff understood they could only care for and support people who consented to being cared for.

People told us that although individual staff were caring they felt the service was not caring because calls were not made on time and they were not always informed in advance. Staff treated people with privacy and dignity and respected people’s homes and belongings.

People told us they felt happy to raise any concerns with staff and when they had raised concerns action had been taken in response. The registered provider had a system in place to deal with any written complaints.

Governance systems and processes to monitor and improve the quality of care people received were not robust in identifying areas requiring improvement and ensuring that action was taken in a timely way.

Staff said the management team were available to them and provided advice and guidance when required.

You can see what actions we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.