TES Homecare Ltd

Updated 14 September 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 provider is 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.

This inspection took place on 31 July and 1 August 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

We spoke with three people using the service and their relatives. We also spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager and the quality assurance manager.

Before our inspection we reviewed the information, we held about the service including notifications that the registered provider had sent us and the Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, including what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make.

We contacted Sheffield local authority and Sheffield Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We received feedback from Sheffield local authority commissioners. This information was reviewed and used to assist with our inspection.

We checked a selection of records, including care records for three people who used the service, recruitment and training records for three staff, policies and procedures and other records relating to the management of the service. We spoke with nine staff, including care staff, the registered manager, the deputy manager and the quality assurance manager.

Updated 14 September 2018

This inspection took place on the 31 July and 1 August 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

This was first inspection of the service since registering with CQC in May 2017.

TES Homecare is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats across the city of Sheffield and Rotherham. It provides a service to older adults and younger disabled adults.

Not everyone using TES Homecare receives 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.

In addition to carrying out the activity of personal care, the service provides companionship and home help services. At the time of the inspection 40 people were receiving personal care from the provider.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of the 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People we spoke with told us they felt “safe” and had no worries or concerns. Relatives we spoke with did not express any concerns about the safety of their family member.

Safeguarding procedures were robust and staff understood how to safeguard people they supported.

People are supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice.

Individual risk assessments were completed for people so that identifiable risks were managed effectively.

There were robust recruitment procedures in place so people were cared for by suitably qualified staff who had been assessed as safe to work with people.

The service had appropriate arrangements in place to manage medicines so people were protected from the risks associated with medicines.

Staffing levels were appropriate to meet people’s needs and were kept under review.

Complaints were recorded and dealt with in line with organisational policy.

People knew who the registered manager was and knew they could ask to speak with them if they had any concerns.

Accidents and incidents were monitored by the registered manager to ensure any trends were identified and measures put in place to reduce the risk of them happening again.

There were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service provided. Relatives made positive comments about the way the service was managed and staff made positive comments about the management team and working at the service.

The registered manager was aware of their responsibility to inform the CQC about notifiable incidents and circumstances in line with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.