We carried out a review of the data available to us about My Homecare HCI on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about My Homecare HCI, you can give feedback on this service.
My Homecare HCI is a domiciliary care agency providing a range of services including personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection, there were 34 people using the service.
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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Staff often provided extra support and assistance to people when this was not part of people's contractual care arrangements. The care staff and management team worked together to deliver a high standard of care to people who used the service. They were creative and put people at the centre of everything they did, particularly during the pandemic, where they were able to improve people’s quality of life and alleviate loneliness.
We received positive feedback from people and their relatives about the service. They told us the staff knew their needs well and were responsive to how they preferred to be cared for.
People's care and risk management plans set out the care tasks they required help with and these contained information about people and their preferences for how they liked to be supported.
People told us they felt safe. Where there were risks to people’s safety and wellbeing, these had been assessed and the provider had done all that was reasonably practicable to lessen those risks.
Incidents and accidents were recorded, and appropriate action taken. Records Included an analysis and evidence of lessons learned. The staff demonstrated they learnt from mistakes and made improvements when things went wrong.
The provider made sure there were enough staff deployed to support people and staff usually arrived at people’s homes on time. Staff received induction, training and supervision and felt supported in their roles.
The provider sought feedback from people, relatives and staff and used this to develop the service. People and staff were confident they could raise any concerns they had with the registered manager and felt they would be listened to.
The registered manager and senior staff were responsive to and worked in partnership with other agencies to meet people’s needs.
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.
There were robust systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and recognise when improvements were required.
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
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 18 October 2019) and there was one breach of regulation. Since this rating was awarded the service has moved premises. We have used the previous rating to inform our planning and decisions about the rating at this inspection.
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 received a safeguarding concern from the local authority in relation to the care a person had received. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective, responsive and well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key question. We therefore did not inspect this. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for this key question were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for My Homecare HCI on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.
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.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Not all risks to people’s health and safety had been identified and assessed. Risk assessments did not always contain guidelines for staff about how to reduce risk and support people to remain safe. Initial assessments were not comprehensive and did not always contain the correct or necessary information so there was a risk staff would not know how to meet people’s individual needs.
Care plans were also not comprehensive and not always person-centred. They did not always contain enough information for staff to know people’s individual needs and choices.
The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and make improvements where needed. However, they had not started to use these and had failed to identify some of the areas for improvement we found.
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 were consulted in all aspects of their care and support and their choices were respected.
People who used the service and their relatives were happy with the service they received. People said the staff were kind, caring and respectful and they had developed good relationships with them.
The provider worked with other professionals to help make sure people had access to health care services. The provider had systems in place for the safe management of medicines. Nobody was being supported with their medicines at the time of our inspection. People’s nutritional needs were assessed and met.
Staff were happy working for the service and felt well supported. They enjoyed their work and spoke positively about the people they cared for. They received the training, support and information they needed to provide effective care. The provider had robust procedures for recruiting staff to help ensure only suitable staff were employed. Newly recruited staff received an induction which included training.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 31/1/2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the date the service registered.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement.
Enforcement
We have identified a breach of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for 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.