Background to this inspection
Updated
6 November 2018
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
The inspection took place on 24 and 25 July 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provided a domiciliary care service to people who lived in the community. We needed to be sure that we could access the office premises.
The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector. The onsite visits gave us the opportunity to see the manager and office staff; and to review care records, policies and procedures.
Before our inspection the provider completed a provider information return (PIR). The PIR is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
We also reviewed the information we held about the service and we looked at the statutory notifications they had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to send to us by law.
Before the inspection visit we contacted the local authority safeguarding and commissioning teams about the service to gather relevant information. We also contacted Wigan & Leigh Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We did not receive any negative information from these organisations.
During the inspection we spoke to the registered manager and nine staff members. We visited four people in their own homes and spoke to three relatives.
During the office visit we looked at records relating to the management of the service. This included policies and procedures, incident and accident records, safeguarding records, complaint records, three staff recruitment, training and supervision records, three care files, team meeting minutes, satisfaction surveys and a range of auditing tools and systems and other documents related to the management of the service.
Updated
6 November 2018
Belong at Home is a domiciliary care agency (DCA) located in Atherton, Greater Manchester. The service provides personal care to people living in their own homes. At the time of the inspection the service provided care and support to 29 people.
This inspection took place on 24 and 25 July 2018 and was announced. The service was last inspected on October 2015 and received an overall rating of good. The safe domain ‘required improvement’. Medication was not always administered safely and risk assessments were not consistently completed and both areas required improvement. This was a breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
We saw substantial improvements in both areas and each was now managed safely. Systems in place to manage and provide medicines had been reviewed to ensure that medicines were administered safely and new and comprehensive documentation for risk assessments identified and mitigated risks.
There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People were secure and felt safe using the service. They told us how they valued the support they received. Surveys conducted with people who used the service and their relatives demonstrated a high level of satisfaction with the service and a reoccurring theme of the service going the extra mile to provide high quality care.
There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and the service prided itself in providing a reliable service and did not miss any visits. Recruitment was safe and methods of selecting new staff had a strong emphasis on staff values and choosing empathic people to work in the service.
A comprehensive induction and training package helped to ensure that all staff had the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and support. This included access to good quality face to face training and a programme of ongoing learning and development. Safeguarding training was effective and staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities.
The service was proactive when addressing people’s health and social care needs and worked flexibly to ensure people’s individual preferences were met. People told us that the staff met their needs and were proactive in their approach. The service had developed impressive relationships with external health and social care organisation and this ensured that a holistic approach was taken towards people’s care and support.
The service was working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and kept the individual at the centre of the decision-making process. This was in keeping with the empowering ethos of the MCA.
The service was person centred and had a strong focus on supporting people to maximise their quality of life. The service promoted independent advocacy to help safeguard people’s rights.
The service was proactive at promoting activities and access to the wider community. They were both creative and on the lookout for opportunities to enhance this aspect of people’s lives.
Privacy and dignity were respected, and people were supported by very kind, caring and compassionate staff who routinely went above and beyond what was expected of them to ¿provide people with excellent, high quality care.
Staff were extremely positive ¿about the people they supported and the management and leadership inspired them to deliver a high-quality service. The staff felt supported in their roles and could seek guidance from senior staff when they needed it.
The service was innovative and had good quality assurance systems in place to monitor performance and to drive improvement.