Background to this inspection
Updated
13 November 2021
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 checked 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 one inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 29 June and ended on 5 July 2021. We visited the office location on 29 June and on the 1 July 2021.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
During the inspection
We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and four people’s medicines records. We looked at three 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.
We spoke with the registered manager, operations manager, recruiter/co-ordinator and nursing supervisor and met members of the management team. We spoke with the nominated individual and director via video conference whilst visiting the location office on 1 July 2021.
On the 5 July 2021 we spoke with seven people and six relatives who used the service.
After the inspection
We wrote to 14 care workers and received five replies. We telephoned and spoke with a further four care workers. In this report the term ‘care giver’ refers to a ‘care worker’. We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records and evidence of provider engagement with the people who used the service, their relatives and the local community.
Updated
13 November 2021
About the service
G&M Senior Care Limited t/a Home Instead Senior Care is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care and support to people living in their own homes. They are registered to provide care to older and younger adults some of whom are living with dementia, disabilities, mental health conditions, and sensory impairments.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection they were offering personal care to 43 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The provider had strong leadership and managers led by example to provide a quality service for people that met their needs. The culture within the service was enabling and care givers went above and beyond to help meet people’s needs. The provider had robust quality assurance processes and a range of methods to get feedback from people, their relatives and others that they valued and considered in developing and improving their service.
The feedback from people and their relatives was overwhelmingly positive and demonstrated that a caring and empowering culture was well embedded across the organisation. Staff knew the people they were supporting well and understood how best to support them. There was an emphasis on respecting people's individuality and providing care according to their preferences.
The service was led by two directors who were also the owners of the company. They and their management team demonstrated a strong level of engagement with people, relatives and their staff. The provider had demonstrated their aim to be to be proactive and innovative. They put people at the centre of their service delivery.
The provider ensured they supported staff and people using the service well throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They had introduced initiatives to keep people and staff safe. They had supported staff to create alternative activities whilst people were locked down to maintain peoples’ well-being. The provider had arrangements to ensure people received responsive end of life care, if this is required.
The provider had invested in training their work force. The management team had specific roles and areas of interests and kept their learning updated. It was a strength of the service they could train, advise and support care givers to learn the skills and knowledge they required to give quality care to people.
The providers were well supported by the brand Home Instead and they welcomed both external and internal auditing. Feedback received was treated as an opportunity to reflect and further improve the quality of the service for people.
The provider had systems and processes to identify and mitigate the risk of abuse to people using their service. People told us they felt safe with their consistent individual teams of staff who were familiar, friendly and respectful visitors to their homes. Staff understood people’s care needs well and people were very pleased about the care they received.
The provider had a safe recruitment processes which checked staff suitability to provide care to people. There was considered careful matching of the staff with people they supported. They took into account their mutual interests and individual personalities to make sure that appropriate and caring relationship could be built between care givers and people using the service.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 29 June 2018).
Why we inspected
We undertook this announced focused inspection due to the length of time since our last inspection. The report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions of safe, responsive and well-led. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has not changed and remains good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for G&M Senior Care Limited t/a Home Instead Senior Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
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.