Quality Care @ Home

Updated 23 June 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

The service is not required to have a registered manager with the care quality commission, as the provider is an individual. The provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced.

We gave the service 48 hours’ 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 26 May 2021 and ended on 02 June 2021. We visited the office location on 27 May 2021.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We also requested feedback from Healthwatch to obtain their views of the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three people who used the service and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with seven members of staff including the provider, career development officer, senior care workers and care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included seven people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at six staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at the providers policies and procedures, training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 23 June 2021

About the service

Quality Care @ Home is a domiciliary care service that provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. The service is registered to provide support to younger adults and older people, living with dementia, mental health support needs, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. At the time of our inspection 64 people were using the service.

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

Since our last inspection the provider had further developed their systems for the management of medicines and their processes and systems to ensure relevant agencies were notified of any significant events.

People were protected from the risk of abuse by staff who had a good understanding of how to keep people safe. Staff recognised the signs of abuse and how to report it.

Risks to people's health had been identified, assessed and monitored. Staff were knowledgeable and knew the risks to people and helped make sure they stayed safe.

Recruitment was undertaken safely, with appropriate background checks before staff started work.

There was sufficient supplies of PPE and people and their relatives confirmed staff wore this. Staff had received appropriate training in infection control.

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.

People were supported by a staff team that were kind and compassionate with whom they had developed positive relationships.

People and staff told us the service was well led and managed. Staff told us they felt supported, the team worked well together, and staff morale was good. The provider had systems in place to identify improvements and drive good care.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update: The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 17 June 2019). The provider showed us what action they had taken after the last inspection to show how they had improved. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulation 18.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Quality Care @ Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.