About the service MiHomecare is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were 570 people using the service. People using the service lived within the London Boroughs of Islington (515 people) and Tower Hamlets (55 people) and had their service commissioned by the local authorities.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People’s experience of the service was positive. A relative of one person using the service told us, “My relative feels absolutely safe with the carers.” This view of the service was repeated by everyone we spoke with.
People who used the service were protected from the risk of harm and abuse. There was a safeguarding system and care workers knew how to identify and report concerns. Where safeguarding concerns had been identified, the registered manager had taken appropriate action.
There were effective systems and processes in place to minimise risks to people. Risks had been identified, assessed and reviewed. The assessments provided information about how to support people to ensure risks were reduced.
Care workers had been recruited safely. Pre-employment checks had been carried out to help the service make safer recruitment decisions and prevent the appointment of unsuitable people. This meant only suitable applicants were offered work with the service.
There were enough care workers deployed to keep people safe. People told us care workers were always on time and stayed for the allotted time.
There were systems in place to ensure proper and safe use of medicines. People’s relatives told us people received their medicines on time.
People were protected from the risks associated with poor infection control. Care workers were supplied with appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves and aprons
There was a process in place to report, monitor and learn from accidents and incidents. Accidents were documented timely in line with the service’s policy and guidance.
There was an effective training system in place. Care workers demonstrated good knowledge and skills necessary for their role. They received regular supervision and annual appraisal, including monthly spot checks to monitor their performance when supporting people.
People’s health needs were met. Their care was co-ordinated with a range of health and social care professionals to ensure people’s health were met.
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.
People told us staff were kind and caring and treated them with dignity and respect. They felt that care workers treated them fairly, regardless of age, gender or disability.
People received person centred care. Their assessments showed they had been involved in the assessment process. Care workers were knowledgeable about people’s needs. They could describe to us how people liked to be supported.
The service had a range of quality assurance processes, which included, annual surveys, regular unannounced spot checks and telephone calls, audits and a complaints system. This was used to drive improvements. People told us they were asked of their views about the quality of the service.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection (and update)
This service was registered with us on 9 January 2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on our timelines for inspecting newly registered services.
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.