Bells Home Care Limited

About the service

Bells Homecare is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes. At the time of our inspection there were 11 people receiving a regulated activity. 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

Systems in place to monitor the quality of the service were not robust. We have made a recommendation regarding this.

Measures in place to reduce the risk of spread of infection were not always in line with government guidelines. We have made a recommendation about this.

Staff were not always recruited safely and appropriate checks on staff were not always completed. We have made a recommendation about this.

People were consistently positive about the support they received from Bells Home Care and the caring nature of staff. Staff knew people well and knew how to mitigate any risks to people. Some improvements were required to people’s records.

People received their medicines as prescribed. Staff had received training and competencies to ensure they had the knowledge and skills to safely administer medicines.

People felt safe receiving support from Bells Home Care. Staff had knowledge of safeguarding procedures.

People and staff shared positive feedback regarding the management. They felt there was effective communication and that the registered manager was approachable.

The provider worked in partnership with health professionals and the local authority. They had offered support to cover care calls for other providers during the height of the pandemic.

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 09 January 2019)

Why we inspected

We undertook a targeted inspection to follow up on specific concerns which we had received about the service. The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about measures in place to reduce the risk of spread of inspection. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We inspected and found there was a concern with infection control measures, so we widened the scope of the inspection to become a focused inspection which included the key questions of safe and well-led.

No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. 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 Bells Home Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

The service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes in the community. It provides a service to older people, younger adults, people with a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder, people with physical disabilities and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection, there were no people with a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder receiving a service. The service provided personal care to 34 people.

There were two company directors at this service. One of the directors was the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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 Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

The service provided an exceedingly caring and holistic service to people within the community, which was led from the director and the registered manager in particular. Support provided by staff directly enhanced people lives in areas including; health, mobility and independence.

Without exception people and their relatives were extremely complimentary about the service. They were full of praise for the care staff and the registered manager and told us that they were exceptionally kind, caring and compassionate towards them. People were supported by staff who routinely went above what people expected of them and this meant people received excellent, high quality care which positively impacted on their health and wellbeing.

There was a strong culture within the service of treating people with dignity and respect. People and the staff knew each other well and these relationships were valued by people who used the service.

The service was well-led. The registered manager clearly communicated their vision for providing a service that promoted a high standard of person-centred care. Both directors were role models and care staff followed their lead by embedding the values of the service in all areas of support for people.

All of the people we spoke with told us they felt safe. People were supported to make their own decisions; this was encouraged and reflected in their care plans. Care plans demonstrated that the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 had been applied.

Medicines were managed safely and staff had good knowledge of the medicine systems and procedures in place to support this.

Staff had access to training and plans to enhance the training provision were in place. The registered manager carried out competency assessments and spot checks to ensure staff were competent in their roles.

Staff understood what action to take to safeguard people from abuse and risks that people were exposed to were appropriately assessed and managed. We found staff had been recruited safely.

People’s nutritional and hydration needs were well-catered for. Staff supported people with their choice of meals and care plans contained information about people's dietary preferences. People were happy with the support they received in relation to their meals.

The management completed investigations into incidents and accidents to reduce the likelihood of future similar incidents. People were protected from the risks of infection through the provision of personal protective equipment for staff.

There was a complaints procedure in place which allowed people to voice their concerns if they were unhappy with the service they received. There were no active complaints at the time of the inspection.

There was a range of quality audits in place completed by management. All of the people we spoke with told us they felt the service was extremely well-led and that they felt listened to and could approach all staff with any concerns.