Sarah's Home Care Ltd

Sarah’s Home Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to older adults living 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 our inspection 3 people who used the service were receiving personal care.

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

People and their relatives told us they felt safe, and their experiences of the service provided by Sarah’s Home Care were positive.

People were protected from harm by staff who had been trained and were confident in recognising and reporting concerns. Potential risks to people were assessed and guidance was in place to minimise them.

There were enough staff to ensure people’s needs were met safely and in an unrushed manner. Staff had been trained and had the right skills to meet people's needs effectively, including in relation to the administration of medicines. They were supported well by the management team and had sufficient information to carry out their duties well.

Where required, staff supported people to have enough to eat and drink. They supported people to access healthcare professionals when needed, to help maintain their health and well-being.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People and their relatives, where appropriate, were fully involved in making decisions about their care, in planning and reviewing care plans. People told us they were supported by a consistent and familiar group of staff who were kind and compassionate. Staff respected and promoted people’s privacy, dignity and independence. They knew people well and had enough time to speak with them and learn about them as individuals. This, along with information in people's care plans, supported staff to deliver person-centred care that met their needs.

There was a system to ensure any complaints were recorded, investigated, and acted upon to reduce the risk of similar issues happening in the future. People and relatives confirmed communication was good and felt their views about their care were sought and acted on appropriately. Audits and quality monitoring checks were carried out regularly to continually improve the service.

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 31 May 2018). Based on the findings at this inspection the overall rating remains good.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Sarah’s Home Care Limited provides the regulated activity of personal care from an office based in Watford. At the time of this inspection there were 14 people using the service.

This inspection took place over three days. On the 12 April 2018 we visited the site office. On the 19 April 2018 we visited people in their own homes and on 23 April 2018 we contacted relatives in order to obtain their feedback about the service. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of our intended inspection to make sure that appropriate staff were available to assist us with the inspection.

The service had 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.

This was the first comprehensive inspection since the service was registered with the CQC in January 2017.

At this inspection we found that people received care and support in a safe, effective and personalised way.

Staff knew what keeping people safe meant as well as how to achieve this by managing any identified risk. Staff were trained in safeguarding people and were informed about who they could report any incident of harm to.

People were given information in a format that they could understand about staying safe.

Robust checks were in place to check that staff were only employed once they had been safe and suitable to care for people using the service.

People's needs were met by staff who were trained appropriately for their role and they were deployed to ensure people’s needs were met.

People were supported to take their prescribed medicines safely. Staff were trained and deemed competent to support people's medicines by staff who had the skills to do this.

Staff were supported in their role and they knew what standard of care was expected. Incidents were used as an opportunity for learning and to help drive improvements.

People were enabled to access healthcare services. People's nutritional needs were met by staff who knew each person's needs well. Staff knew when people needed support and also when to respect people's independence.

The equipment that staff supported people with was regularly checked to make sure that it was safe.

A positive and good working relationship existed between the registered manager, care staff and relevant stakeholders. People were supported in partnership with other organisations including healthcare professionals to help provide joined up care.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were involved in their care and relatives or friends helped provide information, which contributed to people's independent living skills.

People's care plans contained detailed information about the person to assist staff with providing person centred care. Staff understood how to provide care that was compassionate as well as promoting people’s independence.

People were provided with information about, and or enabled to access, advocacy services when required.

Complaints were investigated in line with the provider's policies and procedures. Complaints were acted upon before they became a complaint.

Support arrangements and procedures were in place to understand and meet the needs of people requiring end of life care when this was required.

The registered manager motivated the staff team with regular meetings, formal supervision, mentoring and being shadowed by experienced staff.

The registered manager notified the CQC about events that, by law, they were required to do so. Regular audits were completed and effective in identifying areas that required further development or improvement.

An open and honest staff team culture had been established by the provider and this meant incidents were reported where they needed to be.