Alina Homecare - Leatherhead

Updated 26 August 2022

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service short notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 20 July 2022 and ended on 26 July 2022. We visited the location’s office on 20 July 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service and five relatives of the people about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with seven members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager, head of quality assurance and care staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care plans and multiple medicines records for people supported with their medicines. We looked at recruitment checks and training records for three staff members. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were also reviewed.

Updated 26 August 2022

About the service

Alina Homecare-Leatherhead is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people who live in their own homes and flats in the local area. The service provided support to people with physical and health related support needs, some of who also lived with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 15 people using the service who received support with personal care.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People, their relatives and staff told us the agency had caring values which positively affected all people’s experience of care and support they received. One person said, “I love them. I think they are marvellous. I don’t know how we would do without them.” A relative of a person told us, “Staff go above and beyond in everything.”

People’s support was provided by staff who were cared for by thoughtful and passionate managers. Staff understood well what attitudes, approaches and values they should show towards people and people were consistently very happy with the care they received.

The service processes, systems and vision enabled staff to provide very caring, dignifying and personalised support to people which helped them to remain in their homes, with their families, in safety and comfort with as much independence as possible.

People’s care was personalised, addressed their needs safely and staff were competent to provide the support. People received support with the areas of daily life where they needed it and felt safe with staff. People received safe support with their individual risks, medicines or eating and drinking when needed. Staff supported people to contact and access other health and social care services.

The managers ensured there were enough staff employed and care visits happened as planned. There were good systems in place for monitoring quality and safety of the service, evidence of continuous improvement of the service and lessons learnt being implemented following any adverse events. The provider worked in an open and transparent way and encouraged people to raise any concerns. Where complaints were raised, the management team investigated and responded accordingly to support people to resolve any issues.

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 13 April 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by the length of time the service was providing support to people with regulated activity of personal care since its registration.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.