Archived: The Helping Hands Group

The Helping Hands Group is a domiciliary care agency that provides the regulated activity of personal care to younger adults, including those with physical and learning disabilities in their own home or supported living accommodation. The service was providing personal care to one person at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

The service did not undertake robust recruitment checks on potential new staff to make sure they were suitable. The governance system and audits undertaken had not found the concerns identified during this inspection.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. People and their relatives were involved in discussions about their care.

Relatives of people were happy with the care and support their family member received from staff. Staff encouraged people to complete tasks independently, or with minimal support where possible. This support from staff aimed to enable people to be as independent as possible. Staff assisted people in a caring and compassionate way.

Staff knew about safeguarding people from harm or poor care. Staff knew how to report their concerns internally and externally to local safeguarding authorities.

Staff undertook a pre-assessment on people new to the service. This established what care and support a person required and whether staff were trained to meet these needs. People and their relatives were involved in their care decisions and the planning of their day-to-day care. Staff monitored people’s assessed risks. Guidance and training was in place for staff on how to support people with these risks. This included a personal emergency evacuation plan which gave information to staff in the case of an emergency such as a fire.

Staff respected and promoted people’s dignity and privacy. People's prescribed medicines administration records were not always accurately completed by staff. People were supported by staff with their food and drinks to make sure they were eating and drinking healthily.

People’s personal information was confidentially stored within the office. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and people received their care visits on time. People were kept safe from risks of infection and cross contamination, and new staff received an induction when new to the service. Staff received supervision and training to ensure that they could effectively carry out their role. Staff learnt lessons from incidents and near misses that happened to help reduce the risk of the incident happening again.

Staff worked with other external organisations to help support and promote people’s well-being. Staff gave people information in different formats, when needed, to help people with their understanding.

People and their relatives were given the opportunity to feedback on the quality of the service provided. People and their relatives were given information on how to raise a complaint and their concerns were listened to, investigated and resolved where possible.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection the service was rated good. The report was published on 4 October 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Enforcement: We identified one breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 relating to fit and proper persons employed. This was because staff recruitment processes were not robust enough to ensure only suitable staff were employed. Details of action we have asked the provider to take can be found at the end of this report.

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

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

This announced inspection took place on 1 September 2016.

At the time of the inspection there was a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

There was a sufficient number of staff available to ensure people’s needs were met safely. The risk of harm for people was reduced because staff knew how to recognise and report abuse. Staff were aware of the procedures for reporting concerns.

The provider’s policy on administration and recording of medicines had been followed, which meant that people received their prescribed medicines. Audits had identified issues with medicines’ management and action had been taken.

People had their needs assessed and reviewed so that staff knew how to support them to maintain their independence. People’s care plans and risk assessments contained person- focussed information and this information was up to date.

Staff were only employed after the provider had carried out comprehensive and satisfactory pre-employment checks. Staff were well supported by the registered manager and senior staff through supervisions and staff meetings.

The CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and report on what we find. We found that staff were trained in the principles of the MCA and could describe how people were supported to make decisions.

Staff were kind and compassionate when working with people. They knew people well and were aware of their life history, interests, and their likes and dislikes. People were provided with a choice of food and drink that they enjoyed.

There was a complaints procedure in place so that people, relatives and friends could raise any concerns with the staff or the registered manager.

The registered manager was supported by a staff team that included a team leader and care workers. The service had an effective quality assurance system in place. People and relatives were encouraged to provide feedback on the service and their views were listened to and acted on.

Staff safeguarding of vulnerable adults training and knowledge meant that people were assured that they would be safe. Information provided to people and their relatives enabled them to contact the safeguarding authorities if ever this was required. One relative we spoke with said, "I don't have any worries about my (relative's) safety. I ask them every time I see them if everything is Okay. They would tell me if something had upset them."

People's medicines were kept at the correct temperature and in a safe place. Staff training and competence in the safe handling and administration of people's medicines meant that people were safely supported with all their prescribed medication.

The provider had robust procedures in place to ensure that only staff who had satisfactorily been assessed as being suitable to work with vulnerable people were employed by the service.

Quality checking procedures and records demonstrated to us that the provider continually sought to improve the quality of people's care.