Archived: New Horizons Trust Home Care Services

The last full inspection of the service took place on 26 January 2015 and we found the service to be in breach of the following regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010; Regulation 10 – Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision [now Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014], Regulation 18 – Consent to care and treatment [now Regulation 11 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014] and Regulation 23 – Supporting workers [now Regulation 18(2) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014]. Compliance actions were given for these three regulations. We checked that the registered provider had taken action on these breaches during this inspection and found the service was now compliant with these regulations.

New Horizons Trust Home Care Services provides personal care for adults living in their own home. The service is based in Deepcar, Sheffield and has access to local amenities. The service's offices are located on the first floor and can be accessed by a lift. At the time of our inspection, there were approximately 52 people using the service.

It is a condition of registration with the Care Quality Commission that the service has a registered manager in place. 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 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was present on the day of our inspection.

The service made sure people were protected from abuse by followed effective safeguarding procedures. We found records were complete and updated regularly. There were enough staff to cover each care visit and people had their needs met and responded to.

We found staff were adequately trained and supervised. The service had an effective and efficient computer system in place to monitor training and supervision needs.

We found there was an open culture at the service, where staff and people who used the service felt able to speak with management on all levels and felt confident in doing so. People confirmed they had their dignity and respect maintained and felt able to raise any concerns.

We spoke with two relatives and they told us they were very satisfied with the quality of the care provided by the service. Their comments included: 'absolutely fantastic, great staff, regular care workers' and 'smashing staff'.

People we spoke with made positive comments about their care and the staff. Their comments included: 'very satisfied with the carers', 'always on time, very prompt and get on with the work' and 'it's the best homecare support I have received'.

We found that staff were clear about what their roles and responsibilities and the action they would take if they saw or suspected any abuse. People told us that they felt "safe" and that they had no worries or concerns. They all said that if they had any concerns or worries they would speak to staff or a family member.

We saw that the service had effective recruitment and selection procedures in place. We found that staff had received training and were supervised.

We saw that the service had provided people with information about how to complain and that a procedure was in place to record complaints.