Background to this inspection
Updated
14 June 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
Our inspection was completed by 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 homes. 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:
Our inspection was announced.
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because staff were often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. Inspection site visit activity started on 14 April 2019 and ended on this date. The expert by experience made telephone calls to people who used the service on 13 April 2019.
What we did:
Before the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included notifications sent to us by the provider and other information we held on our database about the service. Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We used this information to plan the inspection.
We spoke with the four members of staff including the registered manager.
We reviewed three people's care records, three staff personnel files, audits and other records about the management of the service.
Updated
14 June 2019
About the service: Hands on Care is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people in their own homes. At the time of the inspection there were 20 people receiving a personal care service.
People’s experience of using this service:
The provider followed safe recruitment processes when employing new staff members. People received a consistent level of care from a team of regular care workers. There were enough staff employed to meet people's needs safely.
The provider had submitted notifications as necessary to the Care Quality Commission. The provider is legally obliged to send us notifications of incidents, events or changes that happen to the service within a required timescale.
People received safe care and support. The staff team had been trained to recognise potential signs of abuse and understood what to do to safely support people.
Staff members followed infection prevention and control procedures when supporting people in their own homes. Staff members had access to and used appropriate personal protective equipment.
People were supported by kind and caring staff who displayed empathy and compassion. People and their relatives were encouraged to be involved in making decisions about their care.
People received safe support with their medicines by competent staff. The provider had systems in place to respond to any medicine errors should they occur.
The provider arranged training for staff that met the needs of people using the service. They were assessed for their competency which helped to ensure they were safe to work with people.
Care plans were developed for each individual and included people's preferences and wishes.
Audits were in place that effectively checked the quality of the service and action plans were implemented and followed where necessary. There was an open culture in the service and the management team made themselves available.
The service met the characteristics for a rating of "Good" in all the key questions we inspected. Therefore, our overall rating for the service after this inspection is "Good". More information is in our full report.
Rating at last inspection: At our last inspection, the service was rated "Requires improvement". Our last report was published on 28 June 2018.
Why we inspected: This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received.
Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate, high quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates a per our re-inspection plan.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.