Amber Home Carers

About the service

Amber Home Carers is a care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes and to people living in supported living schemes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of our inspection, 40 people were receiving help with personal care in their own homes. Most of these people were older adults. There were also 14 people receiving care and support within 9 supported living services. These people were adults with learning disabilities and autistic people.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support: The service supported people to have maximum possible choice, control and independence. Staff focused on people's strengths. Staff did everything they could to avoid restraining people. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support. Staff supported people to make decisions. Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that achieved the best possible health outcomes.

Right Care: Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Staff and people cooperated to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right culture: People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes. The service enabled people and those important to them to worked with staff to develop the service. Staff valued and acted upon people’s views. People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity.

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.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 6 June 2023).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an inspection of this service on 2 May 2023. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment, consent to care and treatment and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe, effective and well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

About the service

Amber Home Carers is a care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes and to people living in supported living schemes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of our inspection 30 people were receiving help with personal care in their own homes. We have referred to this part of the service as 'homecare' within our report. Most of these people were older adults. Some people had learning disabilities. There were also 9 people receiving care and support within 5 supported living services. These people were adults with learning disabilities and autistic people.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture. However, improvements were required as they were not meeting all of the principles.

Right Support: People did not always have the maximum possible choice and control over their lives and some decisions about their care were made without formal agreements. Medicines were not always managed in a safe way. People were supported to take part in meaningful activities. Staff worked with other professionals to help meet people's healthcare needs.

Right Care: People received personalised care and support. However, the provider had not always recorded detailed information about how care was planned. The provider had not always assessed the risks people were exposed to. People were supported by kind staff who treated them with respect. The staff understood how to protect people from abuse. Staff communicated well with people and understood their needs.

Right culture: The provider's systems for monitoring and improving the quality of the service were not always operated effectively. However, people received personalised care and were happy with the service. The staff felt supported and had the training and information they needed to care for people. Complaints, accidents and incidents were appropriately investigated and responded to.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The rating at the last inspection was Good (published 18 January 2020)

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of right support right care right culture.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation consent to care and treatment, safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Amber Home Carers is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. The agency offered care to younger and older adults. At the time of our inspection two people were using the service. The provider also owned a property which they were establishing as a supported living home for up to four younger adults with learning disabilities. No one was using this service at the time of the inspection, although this would fall under the remit of this service once it started operating.

The service is owned and managed by a private company who have one other branch providing care and support in Southwest London.

Not everyone who uses this type of service receives personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive 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 were happy with the service they received. They told us they had been involved in planning their care and the agency had been flexible and adjusted the care packages to reflect their needs and wishes. People told us the staff were kind, supportive and appeared well trained and knowledgeable.

The provider's systems for recruiting staff had not always been followed because the provider had not obtained written references in respect of all staff. We discussed this with the registered manager. In some cases, previous employers had not provided requested information. The registered manager agreed to make sure other checks on their suitability took place, for example additional monitoring and supervision. All staff had been interviewed and completed an induction to the service, which included a range of training and competency assessments.

There were enough staff employed to care for people, but sometimes they did not arrive on time for care visits because of problems with transport. People told us the agency informed them when this was the case but it sometimes led to problems. The registered manager was aware of this and was trying to improve the time allowed for staff to travel between visits.

People's needs and preferences had been assessed and there were care plans to describe how these needs should be met. The registered manager and senior staff had regularly reviewed these to make sure they remained relevant and up to date.

The agency had effective systems for monitoring and improving the quality of the service, as well as investigating and responding to complaints, accidents and incidents. The registered manager and senior staff had a good overview of people's needs and worked alongside the staff in providing care. People using the service told us they felt able to speak with the registered manager and they had addressed concerns they had raised.

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.

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

Rating at last inspection

This was the first inspection of the service since it was registered on 16 April 2018.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the date of registration.

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 we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.