Home Instead Senior Care is a domiciliary care agency registered to provide personal care. The agency has three offices, based in north Sheffield, south Sheffield and Barnsley. The registered manager is based in the north Sheffield office. Support is provided to younger adults and older people living in their own homes in the Sheffield and Barnsley area. The minimum length of visit provided is one hour. The service is available 365 days each year, 24 hours a day.
At the time of this inspection Home Instead Senior Care was supporting 85 people whose support included the provision of the regulated activity ‘personal care’.
There was a registered manager at the service who was registered with CQC. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
Our last inspection at Home Instead Senior Care took place on 17 December 2013. The service was found to be meeting the requirements of the regulations we inspected at that time.
This inspection took place on 30 November and 1 December 2015 and short notice was given. We told the registered manager two working days before our visit that we would be coming. We did this because the registered manager is sometimes out of the office supporting staff or visiting people who use the service. We needed to be sure that the registered manager would be available.
People supported by the service and their relatives or representatives told us they felt (their relative was) safe with their care givers and staff were respectful. People told us the support provided met their needs and the care givers were kind, caring and polite. People spoken with said they had regular care givers that they knew well. They knew which care giver would be visiting to support them and care givers always arrived when they should and stayed the full length of time agreed.
We found systems were in place to make sure people received their medicines safely.
Staff recruitment procedures were thorough and ensured people’s safety was promoted.
Staff were provided with relevant induction and training to make sure they had the right skills and knowledge for their role. Some staff had not been provided with supervision or appraisal at the frequency set out in the provider’s policy. The registered manager organised for these to take place so that staff were up to date. Staff understood their role and what was expected of them. They were happy in their work, motivated and proud to work at the service. Staff were confident in the way the service was managed.
The service followed the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) Code of practice and the principles of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). This helped to protect the rights of people who may not be able to make important decisions themselves.
The support provided was person centred and each person had a support plan that accurately reflected their needs and wishes so that these could be respected. Support plans had been reviewed to ensure they remained up to date.
People supported and their relatives or representatives said they could speak with staff if they had any worries or concerns and they would be listened to.
We found the service was very well led with strong user voice and community focus. Outstanding management had a positive outcome for people supported. There were effective systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided. Regular checks and audits were undertaken to make sure full and safe procedures were adhered to. People using the service and their relatives had been asked their opinion via surveys, the results of these had been audited to identify any areas for improvement.