Background to this inspection
Updated
7 July 2023
The inspection
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Inspection team
The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
Service and service type
This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.
Registered Manager
This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
At the time of our inspection, there was a registered manager in post.
Notice of inspection
This inspection was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. Inspection activity was carried out between 31 May and 21 June 2023.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with 4 people who used service and 7 relatives about their experience of the care provided, as well as 7 members of staff.
We reviewed a range of records. This included care plans, medication records, recruitment information, staff training records and records associated with the provider's quality monitoring systems.
Updated
7 July 2023
About the service
Harmony Homecare North West is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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. At the time of the inspection there were approximately 150 people receiving the regulated activity personal care.
People's experience of using this service and what we found
Statutory notifications were not always submitted as required, for incidents such as safeguarding concerns. Statutory notifications must be submitted to CQC legally so that we can respond appropriately. We will follow this up outside of this inspection process.
People said they felt safe using the service. There were enough staff to care for people safely and correct staff recruitment procedures were followed. Staff understood about safeguarding and how to report concerns. People’s care plans contained risk assessments, with information about how to keep them safe.
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.
There were systems in place to monitor the quality of service including spot checks of staff’s practice, staff supervision and audits of areas such as medication and communication logs. Competency assessments for moving and handling had not been carried out, however. We have made a recommendation regarding this.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published September 2020).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements. For those key questions not inspected (Effective, Caring and Responsive) we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating has remained as good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Harmony Homecare North West on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and recommendations:
We have made a recommendation about ensuring moving and handling competency assessments are carried out.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk