Carers at Home Limited

Updated 24 September 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We planned this inspection to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats. The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection site visit because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection. The inspection took place on 14 August 2019. We visited the office location on this date.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

We spoke with one person who uses the service in their home. We also spoke with five members of staff including the registered manager and the nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider. We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at six staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, were reviewed.

After the inspection

We spoke with seven people who used the service, one relative and one staff member by telephone. We looked at training data and quality assurance records sent to us by the registered manager.

Updated 24 September 2019

About the service

Carers at Home is a domiciliary care agency. It provides a service to older adults, some of whom are living with dementia. Not everyone using Carers at Home receives a 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. At the time of our inspection, it was providing the regulated activity of personal care to 115 people living in their own houses and flats

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

Staff had a hugely positive impact on people’s lives, such as improving their wellbeing and supporting people in their own time in a crisis. People felt that staff were like friends or family rather than carers and felt that staff knew them very well and that they could approach them with any requests. Although people we spoke to had never had to complain to the service, they felt comfortable to do so if needed. Staff knew people well and delivered care that was personalised to their needs. People were encouraged to make decisions around their day to day care and be as independent as possible where safe to do so.

People received safe and good quality care. Risks to people were appropriately recorded and managed by staff who were aware of their responsibility to safeguard people from abuse. There were sufficient numbers of staff and people told us they had never missed a call. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice. Staff attended thorough training sessions which put them in the position of the people they supported so they understood how it felt to receive care. Staff were safely recruited and received regular supervision and appraisals.

Care plans were personalised to reflect the individualised care that people received, including information around their health conditions. Medicines were administered and recorded safely, with any errors being addressed immediately. Complaints were dealt with in a timely manner and good outcomes reached to prevent any reoccurrence. The service was not delivering end of life care to anyone at the time of the inspection, but this topic had been discussed and recorded in people’s care files, with staff offering emotional support to families during this time. The service had strong partnership working links with other agencies to ensure people received care in adverse weather conditions. Checks on the quality of the service were thorough which meant any shortfalls found were resolved immediately. This has been reinforced through the use of a new electronic care planning system which alerted staff to any concerns.

People, relatives and staff were complimentary on the running of the service and felt that the management team were approachable. Staff felt their ideas were listened to and implemented where possible, and people and their relatives were given the opportunity to give feedback each year through a questionnaire. Staff were also able to give feedback and were kept up to date with the latest care guidance and important information through weekly newsletters. For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Rating at last inspection (and update)

At the last inspection the service was rated Good (1 March 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.