AH Care Ltd

Updated 28 June 2019

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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

This inspection was carried out by an inspector and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes and flats. It provides a service to older people and younger disabled adults.

There was a registered manager in post. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the registered manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

On 3 and 8 May 2019, we visited the service’s office and we looked at four people’s care records and those files relating to staff development and the management of the service. We spoke with 10 care staff, five office staff, nominated individual and the registered manager. After the inspection we spoke with five people and five people’s relatives by telephone and received feedback from five health care professionals.

Updated 28 June 2019

About the service: AH Care Ltd provides personal care and support to people living in their own home. AH Care Ltd is a franchise of Home Instead Senior Care. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting 62 people who required personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People using the service were consistent in their view that staff were exceptionally caring and responsive to their needs. We received comments such as “10 out of 10” and “Brilliant”.

The service worked in partnership with people, their relatives and other stakeholders to ensure people’s needs were consistently met to a high standard. Health and social care professionals were equally impressed about the service provided to people. They told us they had an excellent working relationship with the service and felt that AH Care Ltd was committed to supporting people to achieve the best outcomes possible.

The ethos and culture of the service centred on people. People were at the heart of the service and their involvement and feedback was valued by the provider. Staff were exceptionally caring and went out of their way to ensure people lived a fulfilled life. Their patience and dedication assisted people to reach their potential. Staff consistently provided a service which had been tailored to meet the needs of individuals. Staff provided many examples of how they had gone the extra mile to respond to people’s needs such as researching people’s background which helped to stimulate memories and conversations.

Care plans were individual and reflected the needs and risks of people using the service. They provided staff with the information they needed to support people. Control measures were in place to help mitigate risks of harm to people. They were encouraged to take positive risk to promote their independence and make choices about their care. People were supported to receive their medicines as prescribed.

The service was exceptionally well led. The managers had researched and used innovative ideas to support people, such as using technology to ensure people received the best possible care. The registered manager was involved in several initiatives to improve the health and social care standards and training in partnership with organisations. They shared their experiences and knowledge and provided a service to the wider community. Quality checks of the service and feedback from people were used to recognise and drive improvements.

People received care from staff and supported to carry out their roles. Staff told us they felt supported by their colleagues and managers. They had been well trained and had access to in-house training and champions for additional support.

Rating at last inspection: Outstanding (Last report was published in September 2016). At this inspection we found evidence that sustained the rating of outstanding.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we inspected:

We inspected this service as part of our ongoing Adult Social Care inspection programme. This was a planned inspection based on the previous Outstanding rating. Previous CQC ratings and the time since the last inspection were also taken into consideration.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.