We carried out a review of the data available to us about Care At Home Services Limited 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 Care At Home Services Limited, you can give feedback on this service.
Care at Home Service is a domiciliary care agency providing a range of services including personal care for older people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the provider was supporting 6 people who were receiving personal care. All the people had their care funded and organised by the local authority.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The provider had a robust process for the recruitment of new staff. People told us they felt safe when they received care in their own home from staff. The provider ensured medicines were managed safely and administered as prescribed. There were processes in place for the investigation of safeguarding concerns and incidents and accidents which enabled lessons to be learned to reduce the risk of reoccurrence.
People felt the staff supported them in a kind and caring manner and respected their privacy and dignity. The provider ensured complaints were investigated and responded to in a timely manner. The provider recorded Information related to the discussion with people about their end of life care wishes. People’s communication support needs were identified in their care plan and were met.
People received care in a person centred manner. Care plans identified people’s support needs and their wishes as to how they wanted their care provided.
The provider had developed a range of quality assurance processes to monitor the quality of the care being provided. People were happy with the care they received.
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 22 April 2020).
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.
At our last inspection we recommended that the provider reviewed best practice in relation to recruitment, the management of medicines, end of life care and support and responding to complaints. At this inspection we found the provider had acted on all the recommendations we made and had made improvements.
Why we inspected
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this service on 3 March 2020. A breach of legal requirements was found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve 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, Responsive 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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Care at Home Services Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
About the service
Care At Home Service is a domiciliary care agency providing a range of services including personal care for people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection the provider was supporting 15 people who were receiving personal care. The majority of people had their care funded and organised by the local authority. The provider also provided short term care and support alongside the treatment provided by the health authority to people moving back home after an accident, hospital admission or operation. This type of support is known as reablement and is designed to help people to regain skills and confidence so that they can return to the lifestyle they had previously.
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
The provider was not always following their recruitment procedures when recruiting staff. We raised this with the registered manager, and they took prompt action. Medicines were not always administered safely. We have made a recommendation to the provider about managing medicines. People were not always notified when staff were running late. The provider did not always have effective systems for monitoring and auditing the service.
The provider was supporting three people who were at the end of their lives, but they were not recording people’s wishes. We made a recommendation to the provider to consider current best practice when considering people’s end of life wishes. The provider had no complaints at the time of the inspection, but relatives told us when they had concerns and they felt the provider had not always addressed them. We made a recommendation to the provider to address concerns in line with their complaints policy.
People’s needs were assessed before support was provided. However, the provider was not always considering people’s communication needs. We made a recommendation to the provider to ensure peoples communication needs were assessed in line with the Accessible Information Standard.
Staff were provided with personal protective clothing. People told us they felt safe. The provider had procedures in place to help protect people from abuse.
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. The provider worked in partnership with healthcare professionals to support people. People’s nutritional and hydrational needs were being met.
Relatives told us, people liked the staff who supported them. Staff were kind and caring, they involved people in their care and made sure people's privacy was respected.
Staff were positive about the leadership of the service. Staff said they could discuss issues openly with the register manager and they took action to address their concerns. Staff had regular supervisions in line with the provider's policy.
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 07 March 2019 and this is the first inspection.
Why we inspected
We inspect newly registered services within one year of them starting to provide a regulated activity.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our reinspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.