Alina Homecare Lancing

Updated 6 June 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 16 and 17 April 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice as the service provides a domiciliary care service. We wanted to ensure that people were expecting our calls and were available to speak with us. The inspection team consisted of one inspector and an expert-by-experience. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

The service was registered in May 2017 and this was the first comprehensive inspection. The inspection was informed by feedback from questionnaires completed by people using the service, as well as their relatives. The Care Quality Commission sent surveys to five people and five relatives; we received responses from two people and two relatives. Prior to the inspection we looked at information we held, as well as feedback we had received about the service. We also looked at notifications that the provider had submitted. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to tell us about by law. Prior to the inspection we asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR), this is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make. We used all of this information to decide which areas to focus on during our inspection.

During our inspection we spoke with 13 people, 10 relatives, four members of staff, the registered manager and a representative from the providers’ quality assurance team. Subsequent to the inspection we contacted two healthcare professionals for their feedback. We reviewed a range of records about people’s care and how the service was managed. These included the individual care records for five people, medicine administration records (MAR), four staff records, quality assurance audits, incident reports and records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 6 June 2018

The inspection took place on 16 and 17 April 2018 and was announced. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice as the service provides a domiciliary care service. We wanted to ensure that people were expecting our calls and were available to speak with us.

Alina Homecare – Lancing is a domiciliary care agency. It provides care to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to younger adults and older people and included people who were living with a physical disability, mental health conditions and dementia. The service was also registered to provide care for children aged 0-18 years of age; although at the time of the inspection no children were receiving a service. On the days of inspection there were 27 people who received support with the regulated activity of personal care.

Alina Homecare provides care at home as well as live-in services for people across England. People can fund their own care or have this publically funded. Alina Homecare Lancing was registered in May 2017 and is part of a group of services owned by the provider. The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a ‘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 told us that they received a service that made a difference to their lives, that positive relationships had developed between them and staff, who took time to get to know them and their preferences. People were treated with respect, their dignity and privacy maintained. The provider, registered manager and staff provided people with compassionate care and some people told us that they viewed staff as friends. One person told us, “They talk to me. They help me not to feel lonely”.

People’s consent was gained and they were involved in their care, their wishes and preferences were respected and care was person-centred and tailored to their needs. People and relatives told us about a service that was responsive and adapted to changes in their needs and requirements. Efforts had been made to gather information about people’s background, their hobbies and interests to provide staff with an insight into people’s lives before they started to use the service. Staff were introduced to people prior to offering support and people told us that this made them feel comfortable as they knew who to expect once their visits began.

People told us that they would feel comfortable to raise issues or concerns and that the registered manager was friendly and approachable. People, their relatives and staff were complimentary about the leadership and management of the service. A relative told us, “If I were assessing the managers on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being excellent), I would give them 10”.

It was evident that good quality care and positive experiences were at the heart of the provider’s aims and that these were filtered down through staff and embedded in their practice. There were robust quality assurance processes to ensure that people received the quality of service they had a right to expect and that the service continually improved. People, their relatives and staff told us that they were involved in decisions that affected people’s care and the running of the service. That their suggestions and feedback were welcomed and listened to. There was good partnership working with external healthcare professionals to ensure best practice and maintain a coordinated approach to care.

People told us that they felt safe due to the support that they received from staff. One person told us, “I feel safe because I feel I am with friends when carers come. They spend time to chat and listen whilst they do their jobs”. Staff had a good understanding of how to support people safely and knew what to do if they had concerns about people’s safety. There was a reflective approach to providing care and the provider, registered manager and staff learned from instances to ensure that care continually improved. People were supported to have their medicines safety and on time and were protected from the risk of infection and cross contamination.

People and their relatives felt that staff had appropriate skills and were competent. One person told us, “They are well trained and very professional”. People’s wishes, abilities and needs were documented and staff were provided with guidance. Staff had a good understanding of the people they supported and people told us that they received care from consistent staff who knew them and their needs well.

One person summed up their thoughts on the service they received, they told us, “If you asked me what do they do well I would say they do everything well”.