26 October 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Helping Hand is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. The service provides support to older people, younger adults, people with a physical disability, sensory impairment, learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder, mental health support needs and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 19 people using the service.
People’s experience of the service and what we found:
At the time of the inspection, the location did not care or support for anyone with a learning disability or an autistic person. However, we assessed the care provision under Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture, as it is registered as a specialist service for this population group.
Right Support
People were provided with high quality care which achieved good outcomes for them. Staff followed safe infection prevention and control practices and supported people to manage their medicines safely. People were supported to stay safe in their home environment and staff helped them manage their health needs, including referring to community agencies when people needed additional support.
Right Care
People were supported in a way which reflected their individual needs. Staff knew people’s needs, risks and preferences well. People were supported by staff who had been recruited safely. Staff had completed training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew the action to take to keep people safe.
Right Culture
The culture at the service promoted high, quality person-centred care. People and relatives were involved in the development of the service and were regularly asked for their feedback about the care provided. The provider ensured staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities, through regular training, observations and supervision. Staff told us they felt well supported and could raise concerns or make suggestions. The provider monitored the care provided, to ensure appropriate standards of quality and safety were maintained.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for the service was Good (published 3 January 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Helping Hand at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow Up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.