Background to this inspection
Updated
29 January 2019
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 visits to the agency’s office on 7 and 15 January 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. An adult social care inspector carried out the inspection with the assistance of an expert by experience, who made calls to people using the service. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
To help us to plan and identify areas to focus on in the inspection we considered all the information we held about the service, such as notifications made to us by the provider. Before the inspection, the registered provider had also completed a Provider Information Return [PIR]. This is a form that asks the registered provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well, and improvements they plan to make.
We requested the views of other agencies that worked with the service, such as service commissioners, healthcare professionals 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 six people who used the service, two relatives and five carers on the telephone. We also spoke with both registered managers, the team manager and 12 members of staff, including social workers, case managers and care workers, either face to face at the office or on the telephone.
We looked at the systems and documentation relating to people’s care and the management of the service. This included nine people’s care records, how complaints, safeguarding concerns and incidents had been managed, staff recruitment and training records, and the systems in place to assess the quality of the service provision.
Updated
29 January 2019
Home Enabling Service is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community in the Rotherham area. The main part of the service provides support reablement packages designed to be short term, typically to assist people regaining independence after an injury or illness. The second part of the service is known as ‘Shared Lives’, which provides opportunities for adults to live or spend time with approved. Shared Lives ‘carers’ [this is the term used throughout the report to describe people caring for people as part of the Shared Lives scheme] and their families. The service mainly provides support to people in the following areas: learning disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory needs, older people, and people living with dementia.
At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 82 people who required assistance with their personal care needs.
The inspection took place on 7 and 15 January 2019 with the registered provider being given short notice of the visits to the office, in line with our current methodology for inspecting domiciliary care agencies. At our last inspection in June 2016 we rated the service ‘Good’. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of ‘Good’ and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for ‘Home Enabling Service’ on our website at www.cqc.org.uk’
The service had two registered managers in post at the time of our inspection. One leading the reablement team and one the shared lives team. 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.
People were very happy with the quality of the care the service provided and how it was run. They told us care workers met their needs and supported them to meet their aims and objectives. People told us their privacy and dignity was always respected and staff were competent in their work, caring, 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 monitored and analysed to reduce risks to people.
Recruitment processes helped the employer make safer recruitment decisions when employing staff. Care workers and shared life carers had undertaken a structured induction and ongoing training and support, to help develop their knowledge and skills so they could effectively meet people’s needs.
Medications were administered or prompted by staff who had been trained to carry out this role and whose competency was periodically checked.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. People had consented to their planned care and support. Staff understood the importance of gaining people’s consent and acting in their best interest.
People had been involved in care assessments and developing their support plans. Plans provided clear guidance to staff and carers, which assisted them to support people in the way they preferred.
People were enabled to raise complaints and concerns. The people we spoke with told us they would feel comfortable raising concerns, if they had any. When concerns had been raised the correct procedure had been used to record, investigate and resolve issues.
There were systems in place to continuously assess and monitor the quality of the service. This included obtaining people’s views and checking staff were following the correct procedures.
Further information is in the detailed findings below.