Archived: Helping Hands Bolton

Helping Hands Bolton is a domiciliary service which provides personal care to adults with a range of support needs in their houses and flats. At the time of this inspection the service was supporting 149 people.

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

Systems were in place to recruit staff safely. Recruitment processes were robust and helped to ensure staff were of suitable character and had relevant experience to work with vulnerable people. Staff had awareness of safeguarding and knew how to raise concerns. Steps were taken to minimise risks where possible. Risks to people's health and well-being were identified and monitored. Guidance was in place for staff on how to support people with these risks; this included how to evacuate a person's home in the case of an emergency. People’s needs were comprehensively assessed before starting with the service; people and their relatives, where appropriate, had been involved in the care planning process.

People were supported by regular and familiar staff, which provided continuity of care and people confirmed this. Staff had developed supportive relationships with people and knew them well; people received person-centred care as a result. Staff supported some people to access healthcare professionals when required and supported some people to manage their medicines safely. Staff were competent and had the skills and knowledge to enable them to support people safely and effectively. Staff received the training and support they needed to carry out their roles effectively and received regular supervisions, competency checks and appraisals; staff we spoke with confirmed this. 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.

Staff promoted people's independence and treated them with dignity and respect. People were involved in making decisions about their care and involved in reviews to ensure their care plans met their needs and supported them to achieve outcomes. Staff supported some people to access the community. People and their relatives were complimentary about the staff and their caring attitude. People’s care plans were person-centred and provided staff with the information they needed to provide care and support in a way that met people’s needs and preferences. People knew how to make a complaint. There was an effective complaints process in place to deal with any complaints that might be raised in the future.

The registered manager and staff were committed to providing high quality care and support for people. The service had an open and supportive culture. Systems were in place to monitor the quality and safety of care delivered. There was evidence of improvement and learning from any actions identified. The provider and registered manager followed governance systems which provided effective oversight and monitoring of the service. These governance systems and processes were robust and identified areas of the service where improvements were needed. The registered manager completed internal audits to ensure the service provided to people was safe and effective. The provider also completed a range of audits and monitoring which helped to drive improvements in the service. People, their relatives, and advocates gave feedback on the quality of the service provided and told us their concerns were listened to, investigated and resolved where possible.

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 31/01/2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The service was inspected to create capacity within local systems, as it had not had an inspection since first registering with CQC.

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.