- Homecare service
Home Instead North Norfolk
Assessment report published 15 April 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 09 to 24 March 2026. Home Instead North Norfolk is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to adults of all ages who may be living with dementia, a sensory impairment, or a physical disability in their own homes. We assessed this service as it was unrated. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks relating to personal hygiene, eating, and drinking. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our assessment, 47 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care.
The genuinely caring, nurturing, and positive culture evident at all levels within the service had resulted in people receiving care that met their needs in an exceptionally individualised, respectful, and dignified manner. The focus was on empowering people who used the service to remain in control of the care they received by supporting their confidence, independence, and quality of life in whichever way safely and effectively met their needs, routines, wishes, and preferences. Staff at all levels worked to this ethos and clearly understood their role was to deliver care and support in a way that was vitally important to people and met their individualised outcomes. This meant care was truly holistic, extraordinarily flexible in meeting people’s changing needs and outcomes, and delivered in collaboration with them and those important to them. The service not only considered the needs of the people who used the service, but those of any wider family members or people that were significant to them. This encompassing approach had resulted in outstanding outcomes for people regarding their quality of life, health, and wellbeing. What contributed to the consistently high-quality care people received and their successful outcomes, was the care and time staff took initially to understand people, their wishes, goals, aspirations, values, and desired outcomes. By fully understanding people and what they wished to achieve from receiving the service, the provider was able to carefully match appropriate staff to meet those needs and outcomes; this had been instrumental in ensuring real person-centred care was always delivered. Furthermore, the provider had invested heavily in their workforce meaning they had happy, skilled, and confident staff who felt valued and cared for which, in turn, benefitted the people who used the service. For example, not only did staff receive regular formal support, but they also experienced thoughtful, considerate, and informal gestures of kindness such as individualised presents on special occasions, regular welfare checks for professional and personal challenges, and opportunities to build relationships with their colleagues. However, it was the enveloping warm culture that the management team nurtured that staff told us they valued most. This meant staff felt able to bring their whole selves to work and deliver their role in an open, caring, and person-centred manner knowing they had the full support from their managers. We saw examples of where the provider had delivered exceptional and individualised support to their staff.
The provider also understood the importance of investing in their talented and knowledgeable management team as well as governance systems, both of which had contributed to the outstanding success of the service. Business consultants had been employed to help guide and nurture the service and management team, and artificial intelligence systems (a branch of computer science that develops systems capable of performing tasks requiring human-like intelligence) had been employed to help monitor the service, keep people safe, and drive improvement. All of which had resulted in robust oversight of the service, an incredibly responsive and proactive approach, business sustainability, and staff that first and foremost, understood the human and often sensitive aspect of the service they were providing.
People's experience of this service
All of the people who used the service whom we spoke with as part of this assessment told us they would wholeheartedly recommend the service and their relatives agreed. They told us the care delivered met their needs, often exceeded their expectations, and was provided in a consistently respectful and dignified manner by professional and skilled staff. People confirmed the service had taken great care in understanding their needs and wishes and carefully matched them with staff whom they had the opportunity to meet and get to know before providing care. People told us the staff who supported them were exceptionally skilled particularly in adapting to their changing needs. They told us they had confidence in the staff and that they saw the same small group of staff to enhance continuity and forge trusting relationships. One relative said of the care staff, “They are reliable and bring huge peace of mind.” People agreed that their needs were reviewed on a regular basis and as required to ensure the service continued to meet their needs and adapt with them as required. Care was delivered in a particularly respectful and dignified manner that encouraged people’s independence, maintained their dignity, and ensured they remained in control; people told us this and we saw many examples of that. One person who used the service said, “If I can do something for myself, then staff leave me to get on. I never feel like I am being controlled.” Another person who used the service explained how staff enabled and facilitated them in everyday tasks. They told us, “Staff encourage me to take a share in jobs.”
People spoke positively about the management team. They told us they were knowledgeable, accessible, supportive, and reliable. They had faith in the management team and trusted them. People told us communication was excellent and that they could always get hold of someone when they needed to. They told us they were always greeted with warmth, professionalism, and a responsive and proactive response. One person who used the service said, “They really do care and they are always pleasant with me.” Another person told us, “I’d be lost without them.”
People appreciated the kind, dedicated, and respectful care they received and the relationships they had developed with the staff that supported them. It was clear from people’s feedback, that the whole staff team worked to the provider’s values-led culture and placed people at the heart of their care and support.