Redwood Home Care Office

Updated 22 March 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:

One inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type:

Redwood Home Care Office is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care to people living in their own houses, flats or specialist housing. The service provides care and support to adults and children, some of which do not receive regulated care.

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 site visit because it is small and the registered manager is often out of the office. We needed to be sure they would be in to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 27 February 2019 and ended on the same day. We visited the office location to see the registered manager and office staff; and to review care records and policies and procedures. The office staff included an office manager who will be registering with the Care Quality Commission soon and the human resources administrator.

We contacted the local authority safeguarding team for feedback about their investigation into concerns we knew about before the inspection. However, we did not receive a response. During the discussion with the registered manager, we found out that none of the concerns raised involved the person receiving regulated care. We therefore, did not use that information when we made our judgement about this inspection.

What we did:

Before the inspection, we looked at information we held about the service including notifications. A notification is information about events that registered persons are required to tell us about. We checked the Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan the inspection

During the inspection, we looked at various information including:

¿ Care records for the only person supported with personal care.

¿ Records of accidents and incidents; compliments and complaints; audits; surveys.

¿Two staff files to check the provider's staff recruitment, training and supervision processes.

¿ Some of the provider’s policies and procedures.

¿ We spoke with the person using the service, their relative and the staff member who provided personal care by telephone.

Updated 22 March 2019

About the service:

Redwood Home Care Office is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection, they were supporting one adult with personal care.

The service also supported other adults and children with social activities only and we did not look at their support as part of this inspection. This was because not everyone using the service receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were protected from harm by staff who had been trained, and were confident in recognising and reporting concerns. Potential risks to people health and wellbeing were assessed and minimised. There were enough staff to ensure people’s needs were met safely. Staff had the right equipment and followed effective processes to prevent the spread of infection.

Staff had been trained and had the right skills to meet people's needs effectively. Staff were well supported and had information to meet people’s assessed needs. Where required, staff supported people to have enough to eat and drink. Staff supported people to access to healthcare professionals when required, to help them 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 were fully involved in making decisions about their care and support. People and their relatives were involved in planning and reviewing care plans. The person using the service told us staff who supported them were caring and friendly. Staff respected and promoted the person’s privacy, dignity and independence.

Information in people's care plans supported staff to deliver person-centred care that met people’s needs. Staff had been trained on how to support people well at the end of their lives. The registered manager worked in partnership with other professionals to ensure that people received care that met their needs. There was a system to ensure people’s suggestions and complaints were recorded, investigated, and acted upon to reduce the risk of recurrence.

Audits and quality monitoring checks were carried out regularly to continually improve the service. The provider had systems to enable people to provide feedback about their experiences of the service. The person's experience of the service was positive. The registered manager showed us what they had done to deal with the concerns raised about some of the people they supported. Overall, there were effective systems to ensure people received good quality care.

Rating at last inspection:

¿ This was the first inspection following the provider being registered with the Care Quality Commission on 22 August 2017.

Why we inspected:

¿ This was a planned inspection following registration with the Care Quality Commission.

Follow up:

¿ We will continue to monitor all information we receive about the service and schedule the next inspection accordingly.