Helping Hands Homecare Services

Updated 27 February 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.

Service and service type:

Helping Hands Homecare Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. Everyone using Helping Hands Homecare Services received the regulated activity; the Care Quality Commission (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. At the time of our inspection, nine people were receiving personal 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. The registered manager had left the service the previous week. The area manager was currently covering the role. We will refer to this person as the manager within this report.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is a small service and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service, this included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We contacted the local authority safeguarding and commissioning teams to gather information about the service. They raised no concerns about the care and support people received from Helping Hands. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During our inspection we spoke with six members of staff including the manager, three people using the service, and three relatives.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people's care records, four staff files around staff recruitment and supervision and the training records for all staff. We also reviewed records relating to the management of the service and a variety of policies and procedures developed and implemented by the provider.

Updated 27 February 2019

About the service:

Helping Hands Homecare Services is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection eight people were using the service. Everyone using Helping Hands Homecare Services received personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People using this service were well supported by caring staff.

One person told us, “I feel very safe with my staff, they are always pleasant, respectful and kind.”

People and staff felt respected and listened to.

People were consulted about their care and support.

People received personalised care and support related to their needs and preferences. All people were matched with staff specific to their needs.

People we spoke with gave us positive feedback about staff. Comments included, "My carers are really lovely. They're very polite and kind," and "They know what they need to do to help me.”

People were supported by staff who had been recruited by a robust process to ensure they had the right skills and attributes.

Staff were aware of how to recognise signs of abuse and were knowledgeable about what to do in the event of any concern being raised.

People could be confident that staff were trained to support them, the provider ensured staff had access to training and systems were in place to monitor staff performance.

Where required, people were supported with their nutritional needs. Staff worked with external health care professionals to keep people healthy and well.

Staff were aware of people's likes and dislikes, information was gathered about people's interests.

People were supported to access appropriate healthcare when required.

Quality audits were completed to ensure consistent good quality care.

This service met the characteristics of Good in all areas.

More information is available in the 'Detailed Findings' below.

Rating at last inspection:

This was the first inspection of the service since their registration on 9 January 2018 with the Care Quality Commission.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection. Our announced inspection started on 29th January 2019 and ended on 30th January 2019. This included telephone calls to people and their relatives using the service.

Follow up:

Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our reinspection schedule for services rated Good.