Happy Care

Happy Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. 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 there were 22 people receiving personal care.

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

People experienced a service that was exceptional in its leadership. The registered manager and staff frequently went above and beyond the expectations of their role to ensure people were safe and well supported. This included providing care outside of scheduled visits on occasion when the person had no other means of support. There were regular lines of communication in place so that any issues or concerns were identified promptly, and action taken to improve. Staff felt valued and appreciated and the leadership of the service gave outstanding support to ensure they were in a position to carry out their roles effectively. This included providing transport to get to work.

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 using the service were safe. Since our last inspection, improvements had been made to the recruitment process. Staff were kind, caring and well trained so that people were able to build good relationships and feel safe. There were sufficient staff to ensure people’s needs were met. Support with medicines was given when required in line with people’s assessed needs.

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 10 August 2021).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 regulation.

Why we inspected

We carried out an announced, comprehensive inspection of this service on 10 June 2021. 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 staff recruitment.

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 and well led.

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 Happy Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Happy care is a domiciliary care service providing personal care to people in their own homes.

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 the inspection there were 17 people receiving support with personal care.

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

We found one breach of regulation in relation to recruitment practices. Gaps in employment history were not always discussed and accounted for with applicants and there was not always evidence of references from previous care agencies on file. These are requirements of regulation. We have also made a recommendation to review safety and quality auditing systems to ensure they are fully effective.

People were very happy with the care they received, and it was evident that the support had a positive impact on people’s lives. Comments included, “I would definitely recommend Happy Care to anyone because I’ve so far been impressed with every aspect of the care” and “The carers have a great personality towards my [relative], they are full of life, full of energy and are very willing too”.

The registered manager and staff went above the expectations of their role to support people’s health and wellbeing. This included offering to carry out extra tasks such as cleaning and shopping and spending time with people when they were low in mood. This had been particularly important for some people over the course of the pandemic when there were social restrictions in place.

Staff were positive about working for the agency and told us they received good support in order to carry out their roles effectively. Staff told us they were satisfied with their training and this was also reflected in the comments from people who told us staff had the rights skills to care for them and their relatives. Staff worked with healthcare professionals such as Occupational Therapists and GPs to ensure people’s needs were met.

The service had systems in place to ensure people were as safe as possible. This included carrying out spot checks unannounced at calls, to monitor staff performance. Staff were trained in safeguarding and felt confident about raising any concerns or issues with the registered manager.

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 this service registered with us on 19 April 2019

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection in order to give the service a rating in line with the Care Act 2014.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified a breach in relation to recruitment.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.