About the service Vitality Home Health Sevenoaks is a domiciliary care service providing personal care and treatment of disease, disorder and injury for people in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks such as personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 28 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm; staff had completed training in safeguarding and recognising signs of abuse. Medicines and risks to people were managed. One person told us, “Yes, I feel safe. They are friendly, nice, kind people.” Relatives praised the kindness and efficiency of the care workers and the professionalism of the management team. One relative said, “Yes, I do think [relative] is safe, and they do as well. They tell them what they are going to do and what they need to do. They are very careful, very competent and are aware of what [my relative] can and cannot do, and what is comfortable for them.”
Peoples’ needs were assessed, and person-centred care plans developed with them. Care workers had enough information to provide safe care for people. Staff had been recruited safely and attended training to prepare them for their role. One relative said, “They seem to know how to do the job and if they don’t know they ask.” A person told us, “The one that comes to see me has had enough training, yes.” Staff had access to policies and procedures to guide them in their day to day work. Care plans were monitored regularly.
The management team was committed to providing a high-quality service and worked in partnership with other professionals, such as the local authority and primary health care services. Managers carried out appropriate checks to ensure that the quality of the service was continually reviewed and where necessary improved. The managing director was a qualified doctor, registered with the General Medical Council.
Relatives were very positive about Vitality Home Health. One relative said, “For me it is peace of mind and I have more energy to do the rest of the things [my relative] needs during the day. It is hard caring for someone, and it gives me a nice start to the morning.”
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
This service was registered with us on 30/04/2020 and this was the first inspection. This service has been rated good at this inspection.
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the timescales for unrated services.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.