During an assessment under our new approach
About the service
Helping Hands Peterborough is a domiciliary care agency providing nursing and personal care and support to people living in their own homes, including live-in care.
Who the service is for
Helping Hands Peterborough provides support to younger adults, older adults, people living with dementia and people with physical disabilities. At the time of the inspection, 58 people were being supported with the regulated activity of personal care.
Key findings
We carried out this assessment between 14 July 2026 and 04 September 2026. This service was previously rated as good at our last assessment dated 03 July 2019. We carried out this assessment to confirm whether the rating of good remains accurate. This report does not provide detailed information on areas where we found practice continues to meet a good standard. Instead, our findings focus on any areas where the service needs to improve or where we found exceptional practice.
We assessed the service against the Care Quality Commission (CQC)’s ‘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’.
Staff understood their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding and the processes they would follow to keep people safe. Staff told us they were confident any concerns raised would be managed appropriately. Where incidents and accidents occurred, these were investigated, and opportunities for learning and improvement were identified. People told us their needs had been assessed before care commenced. Risk assessments had been completed to identify and manage risks associated with people's health conditions and support needs.
People received care that was planned around their individual needs,preferences and choices. Care plans were person-centred and provided information about how people wished to be supported. Staff spoke about people with warmth and compassion, recognised their individuality, and promoted their dignity and independence. People were supported to maintain choice and control over their daily lives and to achieve outcomes that were important to them.
Staff were recruited safely and completed training relevant to their roles. They told us they received regular supervision,support and opportunities for development. However, some staff told us they would welcome more practical, hands-on training to further develop their skills and confidence. This was reflected in feedback from relatives, who reported some variability in staff knowledge and experience. The registered manager confirmed that plans were already underway to strengthen and expand the face-to-face training offer for staff.
Medicines were managed safely and administered by trained staff, with appropriate records maintained. The management team carried out audits of medicine records and competency checks to help ensure safe practice. Where people lacked capacity to make specific decisions, the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 were followed, and best-interest decisions were made with the involvement of those who knew the person well. The provider had effective quality assurance and governance arrangements in place, helping to ensure consistent oversight and the delivery of good-quality care.
The service had experienced a period of instability due to changes within the management team. Leaders acknowledged the impact this had had on staff morale and engagement with people and their relatives. Although the registered manager was still relatively new in post, they had begun implementing changes to address these issues, and early feedback indicated that improvements were already being seen.