9 September 2015
During a routine inspection
Harbour Home Care is a community service that provides care and support to adults of all ages, in their own homes. The service provides help with people’s personal care needs in Portreath and surrounding areas of Cornwall. This includes people with physical disabilities and dementia care needs.
The service mainly provides personal care for people in short visits at key times of the day to help people get up in the morning, go to bed at night and give support with meals. Harbour Home care also provide periods of one to one outreach support to people who are living in residential homes. People are also supported to access their local community with shopping trips and other activities.
At the time of our inspection 22 people were receiving a personal care service. These services were funded either privately, through Cornwall Council or NHS funding.
There was a registered manager in post who was responsible for the day-to-day running of the service. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
We carried out this announced inspection on 9 September 2015. We told the provider two days before that we would be coming. This was to ensure the registered manager would be available and we were able to access the premises and information relating to the running of the serivce.
The service was last inspected in December 2013 and was found to be meeting the regulations.
People we spoke with told us they felt safe using the service and told us; “I am very happy and feel perfectly safe” and “I find the staff absolutely trustworthy.”
Staff had received training in how to recognise and report abuse. All were clear about how to report any concerns and were confident that any allegations made would be fully investigated to help ensure people were protected.
There were sufficient numbers of suitably qualified staff to meet the needs of people who used the service. The service was flexible and responded to people’s changing needs. People told us; “They are marvellous,” “They are a reliable agency” and “They are flexible, always work with me when I need to change a visit.”
People received care from staff who knew them well, and had the knowledge and skills to meet their needs. People and their relatives spoke well of staff, comments included; “I would recommend them highly” and “Can’t fault them.”
Staff were knowledgeable about the people they cared for and knew how to recognise if people’s needs changed. Staff were aware of people’s preferences and interests, as well as their health and support needs, which enabled them to provide a personalised service. Staff were kind and compassionate and treated people with dignity and respect.
The management had a clear understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and how to make sure people who did not have the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves had their legal rights protected. Some people preferred to chose the gender of their carer and this was respected at all times by the agency.
Staff told us there was good communication with the management of the service. Staff said of management; “They are supportive” and “We get good training.”
There were effective quality assurance systems in place to make sure that any areas for improvement were identified and addressed. Where the provider had identified areas for improvement, actions had been promptly taken to improve the quality of the service provided.