4 January 2018
During a routine inspection
Homecare 4U is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide personal care to people in their own homes in the community. This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. Not everyone using Homecare4U receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. They provide support to adults who live in the Stockport area. At the time of the inspection the service supported 102 people in their own homes.
There was a registered manager at the service. 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.
We received positive comments from people who used the service (clients are the term used by the registered provider for people receiving a service), relatives and staff. All of the clients and relatives we spoke with told us they felt safe in the care of the staff who worked for Homecare4U. Clients told us they usually had the same staff team supporting them. This meant that staff knew the people they provided care and support to very well.
We found there were enough staff to make sure people received the care needed. Clients and relatives told us care workers were generally on time. The provider had an effective system in place to monitor the staffing levels against the needs of people who used the service.
Staff were given appropriate support through a programme of face to face training, regular supervision, spot checks of their work and an annual appraisal. Staff said the training provided them with the skills and knowledge they needed to do their jobs.
Staff were recruited following a safe and robust process to make sure they were suitable to work with vulnerable people.
Clients' care plans contained up to date, detailed information about their care and support, including risk assessments and action plans. Risk procedures had been revised and improved to minimise the risk of harm to people using the service with improvements to recording the management of risks. People were involved in the planning and review of their care, this information was held in files at their home. Clients told us how information they shared with staff was included in their care file and helped the staff to understand what help they needed.
The complaints procedure was explained in the 'service user guide' which was provided to people when they started with the service. Clients and their relatives told us they knew how to raise a concern. The provider had an effective system in place to investigate and respond openly to complaints.
The registered provider and registered manager used a variety of methods to assess and monitor the quality of the service. These included regular reviews with clients and spot checks whilst staff carried out their caring duties and care reviews. We found some records had not been updated with the dates and staff names/signatures to show the record had been updated and by whom.
We saw appropriate actions were taken in response to any accidents/ incidents and previous safeguard investigations. The service had investigated them to consider potential causes of any injuries, and took appropriate actions to reduce any future potential risk. Evidence showed the provider has mitigated the risks appropriately and steps taken had reduced likelihoods of those risks occurring. However the registered manager recognised they needed to submit notifications of incidents to CQC in a timelier manner.