About the service Helping Hands Horley is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people with a range of needs such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease. 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. At the time of our inspection, 34 people who were using the service received a regulated activity.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People received the medicines they required and medicine administration was safe. We did identify some shortfalls in recording however the registered manager was already working on this. Staff followed safe infection control practices and were aware of their responsibility to safeguard people from the risk of abuse. There were sufficient numbers of safely recruited staff to meet people’s needs. Missed calls that had occurred in the last three months were fully investigated and steps had been taken to prevent future occurrence.
People and relatives told us staff were extremely kind and caring towards them and treated them with dignity and respect at all times. People were involved in reviews of their care and felt comfortable to raise concerns if they needed to. Concerns that had been raised had been dealt with appropriately and in line with the service’s complaints policy.
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. The care delivered to people was personalised and allowed them to be part of the community or attend events that were important to them. Risks to people and their needs were appropriately managed by staff who knew people well. Thorough pre-assessments had been completed to ensure that a person’s needs could be met before staff began to deliver care.
Staff received regular training, including in specialist areas that were pertinent to the care they were delivering. Regular supervisions and direct observations took place to ensure staff were providing high quality care, as well as giving staff the chance to discuss their workloads and any issues. People and staff felt communication within the service was good, and people had been referred to health care professionals in a timely manner where required.
People, relatives and staff felt the registered manager was approachable and felt supported and valued by them. The registered manager was aware of their responsibility to notify CQC of certain events. People, relatives and staff were approached for their feedback through a variety of methods such as face to face, telephone calls or an electronic rating system. Plans were in place to improve areas of the service, such as introducing an electronic medicine recording system and creating profiles for people and staff to swap before care was delivered so they got to know each other. There were close working links with organisations to support people to remain living in their own homes.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was Good (published 28 March 2017).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
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.