Background to this inspection
Updated
28 August 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by one inspector and one assistant inspector.
Service and service type:
DHC Midlands Ltd. is a domiciliary care service. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. The registered manager is also the registered provider and they are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection:
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection site visit because the management team are often out supporting people. We needed to be sure that they would be in.
We made telephone calls to people and their relatives on 13 August 2019 and visited the service on 14 August 2019 to see the management team, meet staff and to review care records and policies and procedures.
What we did:
When planning our inspection, we reviewed any information we had received about the service. We also contacted the local authority for feedback about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection, we spoke with eight staff, including the registered manager, the care assessor, the trainer and support workers. We spoke by telephone with seven people who used the service and ten relatives. We looked at five people’s care records to see how their care and support was planned and delivered. We also looked at medicine records, five staff recruitment files, the staff training matrix and the provider’s quality monitoring systems.
Updated
28 August 2019
About the service:
DHC Midlands Limited is registered to provide personal care to people in their own homes. There were 235 people receiving care and support at the time of the inspection.
People’s experience of using this service:
People and their relatives gave us consistently positive feedback about the care and support delivered by the service. Typical comments included “I cannot commend this service enough, they have gone above and beyond” and “They are in constant touch and I trust all the staff to do the job well.”
Staff were on time for calls and stayed for the right length of time so people did not feel rushed and were confident staff would deliver their care when needed. Staff supported or prompted people to take their medication when required and people felt safe in the company of staff.
Staff supported people and their families to monitor people’s health and to ensure people had access to regular food and drinks. Staff received training which was relevant to their role and received good support from the management team.
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.
Staff took care to protect people’s dignity and privacy and people were supported to maintain their independence as much as possible. Staff understood people’s individual preferences and the service ensured staff could meet people’s cultural and religious needs.
The provider responded promptly to any complaints or concerns received and ensured action was taken to address any short falls in the service. The service communicated information to people using different formats and via staff who spoke different languages to ensure people’s views could be heard.
People, relatives and staff were all positive about how the service was led and managed. There was a strong culture of providing good quality care and support and decisive action was taken following audits and checks of the service.
Rating at last inspection:
The last rating for this service was good (published 31 December 2016).
Why we inspected:
This was a planned inspection which took place on 14 August 2019. Telephone calls were made to people receiving care and their relatives on 13 August 2019.
Follow up:
We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk.