Right at Home Bedford

Right at Home Bedford is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. The service supported older adults who may also be living with a physical disability or dementia.

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 this inspection the service was supporting 23 people. Of these, 17 were receiving personal care.

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

People benefitted from a dependable and personalised service that met their needs, understood people as individuals and held values that placed people at the heart of their care.

Feedback from people, relatives and professionals who worked closely with the service, was overwhelmingly positive and remarkably consistent. They repeatedly praised the caring and ‘can do’ attitudes of staff. For example, one relative told us, “Right at Home are extremely reliable, caring and considerate and definitely go the extra mile. The carers are amazing and very friendly and have certainly made a difference in my (relative’s) recovery.” Another person added, “It’s all lovely, a blessing. I would definitely recommend to others.”

The management team considered careful matching of the staff with people they supported, taking their mutual interests and individual personalities into account. As such, people received personalised care and support from a team of highly motivated and experienced staff whom they had bonded with and trusted.

People were proactively enabled to contribute to the planning of their own care. The service understood that each person they worked with was an individual with different wants and needs. Staff went above and beyond to make a difference to people’s lives; helping to increase their independence, achieve their dreams interests and aspirations, and minimise the risks from loneliness.

Staff had the right training to keep people safe. For example, from abuse, avoidable harm, medication errors and infections. They collaborated with relevant professionals to ensure people's health needs 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's rights were strongly respected and upheld; an equality, diversity and human rights approach to supporting people's privacy and dignity was well embedded in the service.

Distinctive leadership ensured there was a strong, visible person-centred culture, which enabled people to lead full and meaningful lives. The management team were extremely involved in all aspects of the service and knew every person and their relatives well. People and relatives told us they felt comfortable and happy talking to the management team.

The service was innovative and dedicated to ensuring continuous quality improvement to make a real difference for people. This approach was also evident in the way the management team supported staff. There was a strong emphasis on nurturing and developing the team on an individual level.

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 13 December 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.