Hales Group Limited - Doncaster

Updated 23 June 2018

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

The inspection included a visit to the agency’s office on 23 May 2018. To make sure key staff were available to assist in the inspection the registered provider was given short notice of the visit, in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. The inspection was carried out by an adult social care inspector.

To help us to plan and identify areas to focus on during the inspection we considered all the information we held about the service. This included notifications submitted to us by the registered provider and information gained from people who had contacted CQC to share their experiences of using or working for the service.

We also requested the views of other agencies that worked with the service, such as service commissioners, the local authority safeguarding teams and Healthwatch Rotherham. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We spoke with three people who used the service and eight relatives to gain their opinion on how the service was operating. We also considered the outcome of the 23 questionnaires returned to us by people using the service, relatives and a healthcare professional. We also spoke with the registered manager and 11 staff; this included a care coordinator, the recruitment officer/administrator, the regional trainer and care workers. This was carried out either face to face or on the telephone. We also spoke briefly to the regional manager who was present for part of the inspection.

We looked at documentation relating to people who used the service, staff and the management of the service. This included three people’s care records, including medication records, four staff recruitment files, training and support documentation. We also looked at how the agency gained people’s views on the service provided, as well as checks made to ensure company policies were being followed.

Updated 23 June 2018

The inspection took place on 23 May 2018 with the registered provider being given short notice of the visit to the office, in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. This was the first inspection since the service registered with the CQC in May 2017.

Hales Group Limited is a domiciliary care agency which provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting approximately 120 people with varying needs, this included older people, people living with dementia and people with a learning disability.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

All the people we spoke with were happy with the quality of the care the service provided. They praised the care workers for the support they delivered and commented positively about staff working in the office.

Staff demonstrated a commitment to supporting people to be as independent as possible, while assisting them in their daily needs. People told us their privacy and dignity was respected and staff were competent in their work, kind, friendly and helpful.

There were systems in place to reduce the risk of abuse and to assess and monitor potential risks to individual people. Concerns, complaints, incidents and accidents were being effectively investigated and monitored to reduce risks to people and make sure they received the standard of care they expected.

Recruitment processes helped the employer make safer recruitment decisions when employing staff. Staff had undertaken a structured induction, essential training and received regular support, to help develop their knowledge and skills so they could effectively meet people’s needs.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Records showed people had consented to their planned care and staff understood the importance of gaining people’s consent and acting in their best interest.

Where possible, people were encouraged to manage their own medication, with some people being supported by relatives. Where assistance was required support was provided by staff who had been trained to carry out this role.

People’s needs had been assessed before their care package commenced and we found where possible they or their relatives had been involved in formulating care plans. Overall, care plans provided satisfactory information and guidance to staff, which assisted them to deliver the care people needed, in the way they preferred. We saw further work was underway to make the plans more comprehensive regarding people’s individual preferences.

The complaints policy was provided to people using the service along with other information about how the service intended to operate. The people we spoke with told us they would feel comfortable raising concerns, if they had any. When concerns had been raised we saw the correct procedure had been used to record, investigate and resolve issues.

People were consulted about their satisfaction in the service received and a system was in place to make sure company policies were followed. The majority of the people we spoke with, including staff, told us they were very happy with the way the service was run. People spoke positively about the management team and how staff delivered care.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.