My Home Care Ltd

Updated 14 May 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.’

The inspection was prompted in part by information from the local Clinical Commissioning Group who provided us with some information of concern.

Inspection team:

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type:

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes It provides a service to adults.

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:

This was an unannounced inspection. Inspection site visit activity started on 11 April 2019 and ended on 26 April 2019. We visited the office location on 11 April and 26 April 2019 to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures.

What we did:

We reviewed the information we held on the service. We also contacted professionals involved in caring for people who used the service; including local authority commissioners the local authority safeguarding team and the Infection Prevention and Control team

During inspection:

We spoke with three people who used the service and four relatives. We also spoke with six staff including the provider, registered manager, the service coordinator and care staff.

We reviewed three people’s care documents and gathered information from other records held by the provider. These included audits, and accidents and incidents.

After inspection:

We reviewed the evidence provided to us during the inspection. We will continue to monitor the service.

Updated 14 May 2019

About the service: My Home Care Limited provides care at home for eight people who receive personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People and their relatives valued the service provided to them, and in particular, the ability of the service to respond flexibly to support their needs. They told us staff respected their choices and preferences.

Pre-employment checks were carried out before staff began working in the service. Once employed, staff were supported using induction, training and supervision.

People were protected from harm by staff who understood safeguarding and were familiar with each person’s own personal risks. Risks assessments were in place. Staff knew more about people’s risks than was documented. The provider and the registered manager agreed to improve the risks assessments to capture the knowledge held by staff. They sent us copies of the improvements they had made.

Staff had been trained in medicines administration. They had added prescribed medicines to the records. These were not double signed. Staff and the registered manager agreed to amend the records accordingly.

Staff were aware of people’s dietary needs and supported people to do their shopping.

The provider had a system in place to monitor accidents. There had been no accidents since our last inspection.

People were routinely supported to access medical appointments. Staff attended appointments with people so they could learn about their needs and implement medical advice.

The provider and the registered manager had experience of working in care at home services and expressed the view they wished the service to remain manageable in the hours it delivered. This was to avoid the quality of the service being compromised.

Irrespective of a person’s abilities we found people were not discriminated against. People and their relatives told us they felt involved in their care and had been listened to by staff. The service worked in partnership with people, their family members and other professionals to meet people’s needs.

The management team had on-call arrangements in place to ensure staff had back up support when required.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. People were given choices and their decisions were respected.

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

Rating at last inspection: Good (Last report published September 2018.)

Why we inspected: We carried out this inspection due concern which was passed to us by another agency. During our inspection we explored these concerns and found the service continued to meet the requirements of a rating of ‘Good’.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive and discussions with partner agencies.