During an assessment under our new approach
The assessment took place between 9 and 12 October 2026. Helping Hands Godalming is a domiciliary care service providing personal and nursing care to people in their own homes. The service supports older people and people living with dementia and physical disabilities. At the time of the assessment 41 people were receiving regulated support. There was a delegated nursing team employed to oversee any nursing tasks.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates the personal care and support that people may receive. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care and nursing care. This includes help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating, and nursing tasks. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.
We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed autistic people and people with a learning disability respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
At the time of the assessment, the service was not supporting any autistic people or people with a learning disability, but the provider had regard to ‘Right support, right care, right culture
People and relatives were positive about the care provided and told us they felt safe. They described staff as kind, respectful, reliable and professional. Care was personalised around people’s needs, preferences, routines and desired outcomes. Staff promoted people’s independence, dignity and choice and responded flexibly when their needs changed.
Staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities and worked with healthcare professionals when people required additional support. Medicines, infection risks and environmental risks were generally managed safely. However, some minor improvements were needed to ensure risks, including choking risks, were consistently recorded across all relevant documents. Recruitment checks also required further scrutiny. Leaders had systems to monitor quality, but these did not always result in timely or sustained improvements. Learning from incidents, complaints and audits was taking place however was not always clearly recorded or embedded. Staff described the manager and office team as approachable, although changes in office staff and management capacity had caused some instability. Overall, the service had a caring, person-centred culture, and staff were proud of the positive outcomes they helped people achieve.