29 April 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Surrey Helping Hands is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care to people in their own homes in the West Surrey area. People who receive a service include those living with frailty, mobility needs and health conditions including dementia. At the time of our inspection the service provided personal care to 42 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Assessments were not always undertaken to identify risks to people to protect them from harm. The management of medicines required improvement particularly around recording. However, people did say they received their medicines when needed. Accidents and incidents were not always recorded appropriately or analysed.
Quality assurance was not always effective. Where shortfalls had been identified with staff this had not been addressed robustly. Staff were not given travel time in between calls which meant they were not always staying for the full length of the call. However, people, relatives and staff were complimentary of the management team.
People told us that they felt safe with staff and that staff followed good infection control procedures. Staff underwent a robust recruitment process before they started work.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Good (published 17 November 2017).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to the missed calls and the safe delivery of medicines. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-led only.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe, and Well Led sections of this full report. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Surrey Helping Hands Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection.
We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to risks related to the care being provided to people, the management of medicines, incident and accident reporting and the lack of robust provider and management quality assurance at this inspection.
For requirement actions of enforcement which we are able to publish at the time of the report being published. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.