We carried out a review of the data available to us about My Choice Home Care on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about My Choice Home Care, you can give feedback on this service.
My Choice Home Care is a service registered to provide personal care to people living in their own homes in the Consett area. At the time of our inspection there were 39 people using the service.
Not everyone using My Choice Home Care has to receive a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care’. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People reported they were extremely satisfied with the service. People and relatives said staff excelled at their jobs and always went above and beyond in delivering the care. They described the little extras staff just did as a part of their job. Some people commented this had never occurred when they had used other home care provision.
Staff were passionate about providing good care outcomes and took ownership for their practice. People found the service provided a high standard of care and the quality of staff working with them was exemplary.
Staff found the management team's expectation to treat everyone compassionately, give people all the time they needed, treat each person as an individual and look after the individual as if they were a relative was an excellent approach to adopt. Staff found this enabled them to really work to their best and they really loved working for the company.
The management team had created an extremely robust governance system, which rapidly identified the smallest of issue, which was then quickly addressed.
There were enough staff on duty to cover the care packages. Staff reported the rotas were very well organised and enabled them to easily travel to deliver each care package and have enough time to properly support people. An effective recruitment programme was in place.
Medicines management was effective and closely monitored. Staff who administered medicines had the appropriate training.
Staff adhered to COVID regulations and procedures. The registered manager ensured staff had access to ample supplies of PPE and they completed regular spot checks to make sure staff complied with the guidance and best practice.
Staff had received training around the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and associated code of practice and felt confident applying this in their practice. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
Staff took steps to safeguard people and promote their human rights. The management team confirmed they took all concerns seriously and determined what lessons could be learnt. Since started no one had needed to make a formal complaint.
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 11 August 2017).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions safe and well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for My Choice Home Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
My Choice Homecare is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to older people and people living with dementia. The service covers the Consett area of County Durham. At the time of our inspection 46 people were receiving support with personal care from the service.
The service was last inspected in June 2016. At that time we identified two breaches of our regulations in relation to fire risk assessments and staff training, supervision and appraisal. We took action by requiring the provider to send us action plans setting out how they would address these issues. When we returned on our latest inspection we saw improvements had been made.
All of the people and relatives we spoke with said they felt safe using the service. Risks to people were assessed and plans put in place to reduce the chances of them occurring. Medicines were managed safely and people told us they received their medicines when they were needed. Policies and procedures were in place to safeguard people from abuse.
The provider monitored staffing levels to ensure sufficient staff were deployed to provide safe support. People told us they were supported by stable staffing teams whose timekeeping was good. The provider’s recruitment process reduced the risk of unsuitable staff being employed. Staff were supported through regular training, supervision and appraisal.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
Where people received support with food and nutrition as part of their care package they spoke positively about the help they received. People were supported to access external professionals to maintain and promote their health and wellbeing. The provider had a business contingency plan to ensure people received a continuity of care in situations that disrupted the service.
People and relatives spoke very positively about the support provided by staff, who they described as kind and caring. People and their relatives said staff went above and beyond what was expected when delivering support. People told us staff worked hard to help them maintain their independence and treated them with dignity and respect. The service had received a number of compliments from people and their relatives on the quality of care delivered by staff. The service had procedures in place to help people access advocacy services where needed.
People received personalised care based on their assessed needs and preferences. Care plans were regularly reviewed to ensure they reflected people’s current needs and preferences. Some people received support to access activities as party of their care package. Where this was the case people spoke positively about the support they received. Policies and procedures were in place to respond to complaints.
Staff spoke positively about the culture and values of the service and said the provider and manager were supportive of them in their role. The manager and provider carried out a number of quality control checks to monitor and improve standards at the service. The provider and manager sought people’s feedback on the service. The manager had informed CQC of significant events in a timely way by submitting the required notifications. This meant we could check that appropriate action had been taken.
My Choice Homecare is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to older people and people living with dementia. The service covers the Consett area of County Durham and at the time of our inspection the service supported 51 people.
At the time of our inspection the service had a registered manager in place. 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.
At the time of our inspection the registered manager was unavailable due to ill health and the inspection was carried out with the deputy manager.
We spoke with care workers who told us that the registered manager and deputy manager were always approachable. We spoke with people who used the service on the day of the inspection and their relatives who also told us the registered manager and deputy manager were always supportive, accessible and open.
We looked at staff training and found that not all staff had the same amount of training and some staff had gaps in their training records.
Staff had received a recent appraisal but no regular supervisions were carried out or planned in accordance to the services policy.
We saw that people’s prescribed medicines and topical medicines were recorded when administered. We looked at how records were kept and spoke with the deputy manager about how staff were trained to administer medicines. We found that the medicine administration, recording and auditing process was safe; however the auditing system needed strengthening.
From looking at people’s support plans we saw they were person centred. ‘Person-centred’ is about ensuring the person is at the centre of everything and their individual wishes and needs and choices are taken into account. The support plans described individual’s care, treatment, wellbeing and support needs. These were regularly reviewed and updated by the registered manager.
People who used the service received person centred support and their individual needs were respected and valued.
Individual support plans contained risk assessments. These identified risks and described the measures and interventions to be taken to ensure people were protected from the risk of harm. The care records we viewed also showed us that people’s health was monitored and referrals were made to other health care professionals where necessary. For example, the mental health team, GP or care manager.
Our conversations with people who used the service and their relatives showed us that people who used the service were supported in their own homes by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their individual needs and wishes.
We looked at the recruitment process and found that relevant checks on staff took place and this process was safe. People who used the service where matched with staff according to preferences and interests as part of the recruitment process.
People where possible were encouraged to participate in activities that were personalised and meaningful to them. People were supported regularly to play an active role in their local community, which supported and empowered their independence including accessing local facilities.
We saw a compliments and complaints procedure was in place. This provided information on the action to take if someone wished to make a complaint and what they should expect to happen next. People also had access to advocacy services and safeguarding contact details if they needed them.
We found the service had been regularly reviewed through a range of internal audits. We saw action had been taken to improve the service or put right any issues found. We found people who used the service, their representatives and healthcare professionals were regularly asked for their views about the service via surveys.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that as far as possible people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible.
People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment when this is in their best interests and legally authorised under the MCA. Any applications must be made to the Court of Protection. At the time of this inspection applications had been made to the Court of Protection and several others had gone through the process.
We found breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.
We spoke with some relatives who told us they were very happy with the care and support provided. Comments included 'This is the best agency we've ever used', 'They were highly recommended by other relatives and we are pleased with them' and 'They are fantastic, I've got confidence in them, we've seen a big change in (relative's name).'
We spoke with seven people who used the service, they all said they were happy with the care and support provided and felt safe. One person said 'I can trust them.'
People they told us they spoke to staff and managers directly if they had any comments or concerns. One person said 'If I had any problems I would just speak to the manager and am confident she would sort if out', another said 'I wouldn't hesitate to get in touch.'