Home Instead Senior Care - Fareham and Gosport

Home Instead Senior Care - Fareham and Gosport is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to 45 people at the time of the inspection.

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.

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

People consistently told us the service was exceptionally well-led. There was an excellent culture within the service which promoted clear values and a drive to provide high quality care. The high quality, compassionate culture was embedded through every part of the organisation and ensured every person received exceptionally person-centred care. This was driven by a highly organised service run by staff with the right values.

The registered manager and staff worked hard to ensure people were as engaged with their community as they would like to be. People and relatives were signposted to various events and organisations to support them. There was an exceptionally robust governance system in place to ensure there was appropriate oversight of the service to identify improvements needed.

People in the service told us that staff were exceptionally caring. Staff went above and beyond to create lasting meaningful relationships with people. Those relationships enabled staff to provide excellent care which achieved highly positive outcomes for people. The whole culture of the service demonstrated a caring approach and staff were also valued and cared about. People were encouraged to be as independent as possible and continue activities that were meaningful to them. Dignity and respect were always maintained.

People in the service told us they felt safe. Risks to people were thoroughly assessed and known by staff. People were supported by staff who had undergone appropriate recruitment checks. Medicines were managed appropriately, and incidents were thoroughly investigated.

People in the service told us that staff were effective. People experienced good outcomes because staff were skilled and involved the appropriate healthcare professionals at the right time. Staff experienced effective support by senior staff and the registered manager, this enabled them to provide high quality, effective care. People’s hydration and nutritional needs were always 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 this practice.

People’s needs were holistically assessed and met by the care provided. Care records were person-centred and contained sufficient detail. The service was not providing any end of life care at the time of the inspection but had caring and compassionate examples of providing that support in the past. Complaints were well managed and responded to in a timely manner.

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 5 October 2016).

Why we inspected - This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Home Instead Senior Care – Fareham and Gosport on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

Home Instead Senior Care – Fareham and Gosport provides personal care services to people in their own homes who may be living with mental health needs, a physical disability or sensory impairment. At the time of our inspection there were 27 people receiving personal care and support from the service. The support given to people ranged from 22 hours a day to two calls a week.

There was 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 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.

The provider made sure staff knew about the risks of abuse and avoidable harm and had suitable processes in place if staff needed to report concerns. The provider identified, assessed, managed and reduced other risks to people’s health and wellbeing. There were enough staff to support people safely according to their needs. Robust recruitment procedures were in place to make sure staff were suitable to work in a care setting. Procedures and processes were in place to make sure medicines were handled safely.

Staff received support to obtain and maintain the skills and knowledge they required to support people according to their needs through induction, ongoing training, and supervision. Arrangements were in place to record people’s consent to their care and support. Staff were aware of legal requirements where people lacked capacity to consent. Staff advised and supported people to eat and drink healthily and worked with other healthcare services when needed.

People's feedback on the service they received was all good. One person's comment included, "If you were to think about what the perfect care would look like, the sort of care you wish you could provide for your loved ones, that's exactly what you get from Home Instead." People appreciated that they were supported by teams of care workers who were prepared and briefed thoroughly and encouraged to build caring relationships with people they supported. Staff were matched with individual people and introduced to them before they started to work with them, which helped them establish relationships quickly. Staff supported people to work towards their goals and aspirations. People had support when they needed it, and were supported to be as independent as possible. The service responded quickly to requests for additional support. Staff were encouraged to care for people as they would their own family. People were able to influence the care and support they received, and staff put people’s needs and preferences at the centre of the service. The service was aware of issues that could cause anxiety, such as financial abuse and late calls, and had put exceptional processes in place to manage these.

Staff provided care and support that was individual to the person, reflected their preferences and met their needs. Care and support were based on detailed plans which were reviewed regularly.

There was an open and empowering culture. The registered manager applied effective management systems which combined informal and formal methods of communicating with staff. The registered manager was available and approachable. Systems were in place to monitor and improve the quality of service provided.